


target, a prince, and some flowers

by loganxiety (meathermac)



Category: Sanders Sides, Sanders Sides (Web Series), Thomas Sanders, Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, Deceit - the character, Fluff and Angst, Implied Sexual Content, Implied Violence, Joan and Talyn and just a shit ton of OCs, M/M, Modern Royalty, Mutual Pining, Remy/Sleep - Freeform, SIKE, Slow Burn, Soulmate AU, Swearing, i hate how all of my stories have that tag, i will stare u in the face while i fuck with them and i will have no regrets, i'd love to be mean to my characters but i'm far too nice for that, oh my god it's almost midnight and i have a project due tmrw morning, only in the ts fandom, shiiiit
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-07
Updated: 2018-12-31
Packaged: 2019-05-03 10:55:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 40,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14567496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meathermac/pseuds/loganxiety
Summary: Roman is a prince. This soulmate idea has no place in the palace - the stupid flower on his arm had no business being so pretty.Virgil must not have a soulmate. There’s never any writing on his arms despite everything he draws and writes and so he must not have a soulmate.Patton doesn’t understand half the words his soulmate writes on their arms. But they mean something and he keeps writing even though it’s been twenty-two years and they’ve never even tried to meet each other. But Patton has faith and he has hope and so he keeps waiting.Logan knows who his soulmate is. He met him in a grocery store while on an errand for the prince, and the young man had the same formula on his arm as Logan had written down just that morning to remember.Thomas knows them and yet doesn’t know anything about them.Thomas hasn’t been seen in a year.





	1. exposition: the chapter

**Author's Note:**

> hi. it's me
> 
> i decided (more like the goblin inside of my head that hates me decided) that i needed to write some fanfiction at midnight last night and lo and behold here we are
> 
> basically just a soulmate au 
> 
> yeet

Ah, soulmates. 

Roman didn’t care too much about his soulmate, if he was being perfectly honest, it didn’t matter too much to him whether eventually he got married or fell in love with his perfect match. 

He knew he  _ had _ a soulmate - from the My Chemical Romance lyrics when he was eleven to the prettily drawn flower about three days ago, he had received a menagerie of messages on his arms - but he didn’t even acknowledge them. He wouldn’t do it in the future either, because really, how much did it really matter? 

“Logan, did you get the suit tailored for my party tonight?” Roman asked, calling for his… assistant? Babysitter? The person whose college education was paid for in exchange for acting as Roman’s butler?

“I did.”   


“And did you make it to the grocery store?”   


“Affirmative.” Logan was as stiff as usual, both in tone and posture.    


“Did you see him again?”

“I did not.”   


“Are you coming to the party tonight?”   


“I’m still deciding.”   


“You should come. I’ll need someone to talk to,” Roman admitted grudgingly. 

“I don’t think you’ll need me to attend to you at the gala, your Highness.”

“I kind of meant, like, as my friend, Logan.”

Logan startled. “I am sorry, your Highness. I wasn’t aware you considered me a friend.”   


“Oh, knock it off, please. Logan, you’ve been my friend since this whole arrangement came into place.” Roman waved his hand through the air. “Please, borrow one of my suits. It’s the least I could do, you’ve worked for me for four years.”   


Logan was hesitant at first, but he eventually spoke again. “Thank you, your Highness.”   


“Roman.”   


“My name is Logan.”   


“And mine is Roman, and that is what you can call me.”   


“Well, as your friend, Princey - “   


“Princey?”   


“I like it. As your friend, I think you should wear a necktie.”   


Roman cocked his head. “Why?”   


Logan shrugged. “Serious people wear neckties.”

Roman giggled. “Alright. Well, Logan, you are dismissed for the day. Unless you want to bring me some cookies?”

“You dismissed me before you commanded me. Therefore, I will leave.” Logan bowed and exited the room, shutting the door behind him. 

Roman flopped backward onto his featherbed. Despite how annoying his butler - friend, his  _ friend _ Logan could get, he needed him. He’d had a butler his whole life. HIs mother, Valencia, had seen to that. 

Before the tragedy, of course. Now, his chief advisor, Madam (Miss? Madam? Who knows, really) Roxanne Marrs, handled everything. She had suggested the agreement which was just legal enough that it wouldn’t be considered indentured servitude, and Roman found himself his new butler. 

Logan Sinclair was quite arguably born to oppose Roman Arellano. Logical where Roman was fanciful, collected where Roman was passionate and just… the opposite of Roman in every way. If Logan hadn’t already met and confirmed his soulmate, Roman would have pondered the possibility that Logan could have possibly been his perfect match - sort of an “as you wish” situation.

Logan, if you hadn’t gathered, had been brought to the castle on a fluke application, and had connected with Roman in such a strange way that Roman immediately advocated for him. Logan, however, had humbly told the castle staff that he couldn’t accept the job since he had to find a way to pay his way through college and working for the modern royal family wouldn’t pay enough and wouldn’t leave him enough time. Roman and Roxanne protested, and eventually the agreement was reached that since Roman was at the time eighteen and needed Logan less than a child would have, the also-eighteen Logan would have time to attend classes when needed, and, since he was doing the royal family a service, they would pay his way through any college he desired. Sometimes Roman forgot Logan and him were the exact same age, and Logan was also eighteen when he was hired. Two months apart. But Logan acted so much more mature. It seemed weird to think that Roman’s caretaker was barely older than him. 

Although Roman  _ had  _ ended up with a brand new butler/friend. Maybe. 

But that was all in the past. Roman had a gala to attend. 

  
  


Logan sighed as he shut the door behind him. He liked Roman, he really did, but he was a bit of an egomaniac and catering to an arrogant prince was never his top choice of job. 

He could be worse, though. 

Logan headed towards the city center, needing to pick up some groceries and possibly some extra things for tonight if Roman was serious about taking him to the gala. 

He walked through the door of the Target nearest his college, clutching his list and furiously rubbing at the “be back by 7 o’clock” note on his hand. After he had thoroughly smudged it, he made his way through the aisles of the store, occasionally glancing down to his list. Wandering the store, he took his glasses off to clean them and promptly ran straight into someone. 

The other person jumped up quickly and held out his hand. “I’m so sorry!”   


Logan shook his head, placing his glasses back on his face before taking the stranger’s hand. “No, it’s my fault. I wasn’t watching where I was…” he faltered as he noticed the smudged ink on the stranger’s hand. “Going.” He shook his head, trying to regain his composure. “I wasn’t wearing my glasses, I didn’t see you.”

“Well, it’s alright, at least you didn’t make too much of a  _ spectacle  _ of yourself!” The stranger chuckled. 

Logan groaned internally. “Yes, I suppose that is true.”   


“What’s your name, pal?”

“Logan. Logan Sinclair, that is.” Logan put his hands behind his back. Not many things got to him, but he hadn’t ever been very good at romance. That was an upside to soulmates, only really ever having to flirt and fall in love with one person your entire life. 

“I’m Patton Moras. It’s nice to meet you! Though, I feel like I’ve seen you before.”   


Logan pushed up his glasses with his right hand. “I come here relatively often.”

“No, I think I might have seen you on T.V. before!”

“Um, well, I may have accidentally been in the shot before. I work for the prince, and they film him sometimes.”   


“That’s actually super cool!” Patton smiled brightly. “Did you hurt your hand when you fell?” he asked, glancing at Logan’s arm, which was still behind his back. 

“Oh. No.”

Patton looked confused. “Alrighty then. Well, I'll see you later. Unless…”

“Hm?”

“Unless you'd like to grab a cup of coffee with me? I'd like to get to know you a little better.”

“I really have to finish my shopping.”   


“Oh.”   


“But I have a lot of time until the prince’s gala. I don’t have to be back until seven.” Logan cringed internally. Patton would have seen the ‘be back by seven’ note and could probably put two and two together. “I can meet you at the Starbucks on 86th?”

Logan could have sworn he saw Patton’s bright smile falter for a bit.   


Patton shook his head. “Blackberries Coffee and Desert. Graham Avenue. 5:00?”   


“Sure. I’ve never heard of that place before. Well, I guess I’ll see you later.”   


He winked. “See you later, alligator.”

 

Patton may be goofy, but he wasn’t an idiot. He had caught a glimpse of the hand Logan had been hiding - it bore a massive ink smudge, so similar to the one that had recently appeared on Patton’s hand.

Patton wanted to scream. And cry. And laugh. All at the same time. That had to have been his soulmate. It had to be. The pretty prince’s assistant who wrote chemical formulas on his arms and wrote simple notes on his left hand every day.  _ Someone _ had to know.

“Virge!” 

There was a slight crackling sound in Patton’s ear. 

“Virgil. It’s important.”

The crinkling stopped. 

“The paper trick hasn’t worked on me since freshman year. I know you picked up the call. Now, guess what happened to me today!”   


“You fell into a manhole,” Virgil said, snarkily, clearly annoyed.

“No! I met my soulmate!”

There was an audible gasp, and judging by Virgil’s previous mood, it was involuntary. “Really?” The tonal shift in his voice was very noticeable. “What’s he like? Is it a he? What’s his name? Did you talk to him?”

“He’s very smart and calm, yes, Logan, kind of. He ran into me at that Target - like, physically ran into me - and we talked a little bit.”   


“And..?”   


“Oh! We’re going out for coffee at Blackberries!”   


“Don’t screw it up.”

“Have some faith.”

“I’m just saying, it’d be much easier to screw it up than you think it is. And this is your soulmate. He’s who you’re supposed to spend the rest of your life with. Your perfect match.”

“I was feeling good today, Virgil.”

“Well, now you’re not.”

“Me talking about him… it doesn't make you sad, or anything?” 

Patton could feel Virgil scowling. “Why would it do that?”

“No reason, Virge.” Patton backed off. 

“I don't mind not having a soulmate. It happens.”

“I'm sorry, Virgil,” he apologized sincerely. “I forget.” Patton glanced down at his watch. “It's four-thirty. I should get walking to Blackberries if I want to meet Logan by 5:00.” 

“It's fifteen minutes walking from - “ Virgil’s breath hitched. “Never mind.” He chuckled nervously. “Look who’s forgetting stuff now.”

Patton shook his head, then remembered Virgil couldn't see him. “Don't worry. We're even then, I guess.”

There was silence on Virgil’s side. “Yeah. Even. Well, I’ll catch you later. Bye, Pat.”   


“Bye, Virge.”

Patton clicked off the call, sighing. Twenty-five minutes to get there. And since he still had to go around 86th, he needed every minute. 

_ Logan. Think about Logan. Not about Thomas. _

 

Virgil sat down on his couch, blinking back tears. How could he forget? Patton was his best friend. And he forgot his deepest fear (except spiders) and casually disregarded it. Patton must hate Virgil.

He couldn’t tell anyone about it now, though. That was Patton’s secret. 

Virgil grabbed his favorite blue pen and started to draw lines up and down his arm, turning them into vines. 

But why, though? He knew he didn’t have a soulmate, because they never wrote to him, so why did he keep drawing and writing on his arms?   


Why not?

Hope is an ever-present feeling, like it or not, and Virgil had hope because Patton had finally met his perfect match and maybe he could too. 

Probably not. 

Virgil knew he had been rude to Patton. He was jealous - there was no way to disguise that, he was jealous because for twenty-one years Patton was in the same boat. Twenty-one years of no true love, no perfect match like everybody else. 

The only thing that brought him any comfort was that the famous prince hadn’t found his soulmate either. Precious Roman Arellano didn’t have a Mrs. to call his own and the sad thing is it brought Virgil a sick pleasure to know that someone so adored and beloved who could have anyone he wanted was trapped in the same soulmate system that bound Virgil to eternity alone. 

Roman Arellano was a special case. He was beautiful, he really was, there was no other way to describe him and his face and body. 

Virgil was Not Attracted to Roman - it was a title he claimed as his own despite about fourteen different counterpoints Patton had come up with. Maybe sixteen.

Virgil had met Roman before. Once, when they were fifteen, at a frozen yogurt shop. Roman was wearing a beanie and sunglasses - like anyone wouldn’t recognize his face. Virgil nodded a hello and headed back to his and Patton’s table as the young royalty’s fans swarmed him.

Virgil finished his sketch of the vines on his arm and set his pen down. He needed sleep. Sleep was the best way to forget and start over. Virgil felt like he needed it right now. 

 

Thomas was awake. 


	2. creative chapter title

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> some more buildup to a gala i'm ninety nine percent sure i'll manage to put off until chapter five somehow

Logan stood outside the cafe Patton had designated for their definitely-not-a-date, in strictly scientific terms. 

Roman had once asked Logan about his soulmate and why he was so afraid to meet him. Logan didn’t really have an answer for that, he just was scared. 

Some people avoided their soulmate because they didn’t want to settle down, or they weren’t sure they wanted someone to love - which is why some people tended to end up with platonic soulmates. Roman simply didn’t have time for love. 

Logan didn’t fit into any of those. He was just scared, he just didn’t think that his soulmate would think he was good enough, that he would always hate Logan for being… Logan.

Logan knew it was all illogical. His soulmate was made for him. They were each other's perfect match. 

But perfect isn't realistic. 

Anyways, he was out of time to think it over, because Patton was racing towards him, beaming. Logan startled as he ran up to him, hugging him immediately. Logan pushed him off, feeling a bit awkward. They had only known each other for about an hour. 

Still smiling, Patton let go of Logan. “Hi!” 

Logan pushed up his glasses - again with his right hand, the ink smudge hadn't come off - and smiled politely. “Hello.”   


Patton gestured to the door. “Well? Come on!”

The cafe was warm and inviting, with buttery yellow walls and tables spread out across the whole room. It felt cozy and spacious at the same time, if that was possible. 

A relatively pretty girl with long, braided brown hair waved at Patton from behind the counter, where she was cleaning. “Pat! You’re back! I thought you weren’t gonna come back until tomorrow.”   


“I’m here on personal business, Laines.” He pointed at Logan, who waved awkwardly. 

The girl - Laines? - cocked her head. “Is he -”   


Patton nodded. Logan, confused, but guessing at the meaning, shook his head.

“I’m so confused. Logan, are you Patton’s soulmate or not?”

Logan, starting to get very red in the face, shook his head again. Patton, exasperated and probably slightly hurt, turned to Logan. “What?”

The girl looked very uncomfortable. “Um, I’m sorry.”   


“No, it’s fine.” Patton held up his left hand, which had the same ink mark as Logan’s. “I swear. I’m the one who isn’t lying. I’m not lying!”   


Logan, who could hear Patton’s voice bordering on desperation (god knows why), and reluctantly held up his left hand. “I guess I’m just nervous. It’s new.”

Patton visibly relaxed. “Look, Lainey!”

She breathed a sigh of relief. “We just avoided something possibly very, very, awkward.” She reached her hand out across the counter. “Lainey Hansen.”   


Logan took it. “Logan Sinclair. Pleasure.”

“Tell you what. Boss, I’ll bring the coffee to your table. Logan, judging by what you’re wearing, you want a black coffee.”   


Logan flushed. “Uh, I think that’s a compliment, but I’d prefer a mocha frappe. They’re… they’re my favorite.”   


Patton smiled. “That’s cute! And Laines, I want my regular.”   


She grinned and nodded as Patton led Logan to a table in the corner. 

 

Patton’s heart was still racing.  _ Lying. Liar. I swear on my life, I’m not lying!  _ The memories didn’t feel good. 

But Logan didn’t know. Only Virgil and the police knew. So he couldn’t place any blame on Logan, really. He hadn’t even met Lainey before, as far as he knew, she didn’t care about him.

“Patton?” Logan said, looking at him. “Are you alright? I really didn’t mean to freak you out like that. I - I’m nervous. I knew - I knew  _ who _ you were, I knew  _ what _ we were supposed to be, and I wasn’t ready. But I saw you get scared and… it felt dreadful.”

“Hey.” Patton reached for Logan’s hand across the table. “It’s not your fault. It’s something that’s wrong with me - lying is a trigger for me. I hate it. I panicked. Lainey - she’s super sweet. She’ll be cool about it. But you know - you realized -”   


“That you are my soulmate? Yes. After all,” he held up his hand, “I made the mark.”   


“Yeah. You did.” 

Lainey strolled over to the table and set down their coffees. “Boss and Logan.” She smiled and headed back the counter. 

“She keeps calling you boss.” 

“I'm her boss.”

Logan started. “Really?”

Patton cocked his head. “Yeah. My last name… Moras means blackberries in Spanish. Blackberries Coffee and Desserts. For someone as seemingly smart as you are, I'd think you'd have pieced that together.” 

“I speak German. That was my high school language.” Logan's stomach growled. 

Patton laughed. “Really? You seem more like the Hungary type to me.”

“They don't teach Hungarian in schools.”

“Buzzkill. Lainey? Two chocolate croissants, please.”

She chuckled as she grabbed the desserts. “Boss, I'm not actually a waiter.” 

“I'll give you five extra bucks.” 

“Sold.” 

Logan giggled, which Patton felt was one of the cutest sounds he'd heard in a while. “She's funny.” 

“Yes, I am.” Lainey delivered the food to the table and held out her hand. “Pat?”

Patton handed over five dollars. “Now go back to work, Laines.” 

She smiled and left. Patton propped his head up by his hand. “So, what exactly do you do for the prince?” 

“Personal babysitter,” Logan deadpanned, which made Patton laugh.

“Seriously.”

“I believe the technical term is butler. But I do a lot of things. Groceries, other errands…” his face softened. “And I guess we’re friends, too. We’ve spent all of our adult lives together.”   


“That sounds kind of cool.”   


“It’s much better than I thought it was going to be.” He paused. “Patton, would you like to come to the prince’s charity gala tonight? You can bring a friend. I was invited by Roman, so he’ll be the only person I know there. I was hoping for another friendly face.”   


Patton beamed. “I’d  _ love _ to! That would be so cool! Will the prince be okay with it?”   


“I can text him right now.”   


“I can’t believe my soulmate has the crown prince’s phone number.”   


“I didn’t know the prince had a cell phone until about a year ago. He doesn’t use it. But…” Logan showed Patton his phone screen.

 

**Logan Sinclair (Me)** (Sent at 5:37 PM) I believe I have found a way to get a new celebrity to attend your gala. 

 

**Prince Roman Arellano** (Received at 5:38 PM) rly??

 

**Logan Sinclair (Me)** (Sent at 5:39 PM) No. But now that I have your attention, can I bring a couple people to the gala tonight?

 

**Prince Roman Arellano** (Received at 5:39 PM) u suck. who?   
  


**Logan Sinclair (Me)** (Sent at 5:40 PM) My soulmate, Patton, and one of his friends.

 

**Prince Roman Arellano** (Received at 5:41 PM) FINE. but only bc my fav butler found his soulmate. do u loooove him 

 

**Logan Sinclair (Me)** (Sent at 5:42 PM) I could quit any day now. I really could. 

 

**Logan Sinclair (Me)** (Sent at 5:42 PM) But thank you. I’ll see you there.

 

Patton giggled. “He’s… interesting.”   


“He’s better in person, I swear. Who was the friend you wanted to invite?”   
  


Virgil was awoken from his far-too-short nap by his phone ringing. “What do you  _ want _ , Patton? It’s been -” he pulled the phone away from his ear to look at the time - “Forty-seven minutes since you last called me.”   


“Do you want to come to a party with me tonight?”   


“No.”   


“It’s at the palace.”   


“...no.”   


“Virgil!”   


“Why?”   


“Because I got invitations to the prince’s charity gala tonight and I’d really appreciate it if you would go with me. It’ll be awkward to just be there with Logan.”   


“Hold on - how did he get invitations?”   


“He works for the prince.”   


“...wow.”   


“Now will you please, please, please, please, please, pretty please with a cherry on top come to the gala tonight with me?”   


Virgil pinched the bridge of his nose. “I don’t have anything to wear.”   


“The purple button down and black slacks should do just fine.”   


“I won’t know anyone.”   


“You’ll know me. And you’ll get along with Logan.”

“But - “   


“Pleaaaaaaase?”

“You’re making the puppy face, aren’t you.”   


“Maybe.”   


Virgil sighed. “Fine. But just for you, because you’re my best friend and I won’t be able to get back to sleep unless I say yes.”

“It starts at eight, I’ll be over at your apartment by seven, love you, bye.”

“Love you too, Pat.”

Why did he say yes to that? Virgil wasn’t a fan of crowded places with only one person he knew. And if Logan and him didn’t get along, he would only have Patton. And he would want to leave, which would be letting down his best friend in the whole world - he just wanted to scream. Why did a charity gala hosted at a lavish palace where he would probably get to meet the crown prince so much of a stressor for him? 

Who actually gave a fuck, though? Patton had Logan. And if Patton had someone else, he didn’t fucking need Virgil. 

Virgil put his hand to his chest and tried to calm himself down.  _ In for four, hold for seven, out for eight. _ Patton cared. Patton liked him. Patton enjoyed his company. 

_ Patton doesn’t give a damn. _

Calm. Cool. Collected. Calm. Cool. Collected. 

Why today? Why, of all days, it  _ had _ to be today that he freaked out. 

Virgil groaned and picked up his phone, dialing Patton. “Can you come earlier?”

“Of course, kiddo. Do you want me to come over now?”   


“Yeah.”   


“Sure thing.”   


Virgil flopped backwards onto the couch. He'd matured enough from high school to know that if he called Patton and asked him to come over, he would feel better. Patton had literally taken a class to know how to calm him down because he cared  enough that it was important to him whether he knew how to take care of Virgil properly when he had a panic attack, or how to help him calm down when he felt he was going to have one. 

The goblin in his head didn't see it that way. Virgil’s attacks and general anxiety were just annoying and frustrating. However, the goblin in his head was an asshat and so it got ignored as much as Virgil could.

 

Roman fixed his hair one more time. “Does it look better this way, Logan?” 

He sighed. “It looked fine the way you had it before.” 

“I know, but does this look better?” 

“I liked the third way you did it the best.” 

“But that was forever ago! I don't even remember what it looked like!”

“You had it more down, like bangs.” 

It made you look older.”   


“I’m twenty-three! I don’t need to look older!”

“You’re twenty-three?”   


“My birthday was like, three weeks ago.”   


“...I forgot about that.”

“You're supposed to be the smart one, Logan!”

Logan glared at him. “Someday.”   


“I still don’t know why you haven’t left yet. You graduated.” He pushed his hair back into a longer style. “Is this more like it?”   


“Why would I quit? It’s a good job. It pays decently, and I get to live here.” Logan got up from his seat on the couch to look at Roman. “Yeah. That’s better.”   


They both looked the mirror. Roman nodded approvingly. “I agree. This is my favorite.”   


“See? I don’t have the fashion sense of a toad.”   


“I disagree.”

Roman sat down on the stool next to his vanity. He felt good today - his hair looked very nice, though he would never give Logan credit for that, and his outfit was very stylish. He was the epitome of royalty. Perfection. 

_ Perfection is a bunch of bullshit. You're idiotic. Worthless.  _

Roman shook his head as if clearing the thoughts away. Logan looked at him strangely but knew better than to question it. Roman sighed and went back to mindlessly messing with his hair.   


Logan looked down at his phone. “Your Highness, it’s time for the gala.”   


Roman adjusted his crown. “Let’s go, then.”

“Roman?” 

“Yes, Logan?” 

Logan gestured to Roman’s exposed arm. “There's a message.” 

Roman made to roll down his sleeve but paused when he saw what it said. 

_ Is there anybody there?  _

 

Thomas sat up. He didn't know where he was.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> liek comment subscribe and leave kudos 
> 
> my computer's going to dieeeee fucc


	3. the gala pt 1 kind of

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> i screamed in happiness writing the end of this and I WROTE IT I'M SUCH A SUCKER FOR SHIT LIKE THAT AAAAA
> 
> i'm not kidding i screamed and my brother got mad at me
> 
> it's cute 
> 
> enjoy!

Patton put his hand on Virgil’s shoulder. “You’ve gotta stop beating yourself up over this.” 

Virgil stared at the message scrawled across his arm. “I know… I know.” 

_ Is there anybody there? _

He sighed. “I won't get a response anyway. I never have.” Virgil ran his fingers through his hair. “This whole soulmate thing is bullshit.” 

“Language.” 

Virgil laughed. “Pat, you're not actually my dad.” 

“You deserve one as great as me.” 

They both laughed this time. Virgil exhaled and glanced at the clock in the corner. “Unless your Logan is sending a limo for us, we should probably get walking.”

Patton snorted. “I wish he were able to do that. Come on, let’s get going. I want to check that everything got locked up properly at the cafe.”   


“Wasn’t Lainey closing? She’s your best -” Virgil stopped talking when he noticed Patton shaking his head. “Well, if not her, who?”   


“I’m not sure.”   


Virgil sighed. “You’ve been in magazines for how impressive it is that you started this cafe and kept it running while you were only nineteen - and you _ can’t remember who’s closing it?! _ ”

“...yes.”

Virgil laughed. “You're amazing.” 

“I feel like you called me a clueless moron once because I didn't quite get the answer right on the homework. Your compliment style has so totally changed.” 

“Probably did. I was kind of an asshole in high school.” 

“Aw! Don't say that! You were amazing! You were my best friend!”

“I  _ am _ your best friend.” 

“Not the point.”

“Pat!”   


“Sorry, Virge.”   


Virgil glanced at his phone. “Okay, it starts at eight, right?” 

“Yes?” 

“Then we should have left five minutes ago.”

Patton groaned. “Are we walking?”   


“Hate to break it to you, but the answer hasn’t changed since the last time we talked about it. Neither of us has a car, do we?”   


“I was kinda still hoping for that limo.”   


“Same, but like, we have to leave no matter what.” Virgil stood up and looked at his outfit one last time in the mirror. “I’m still iffy about this…”   


Patton jumped up, brushing himself off. “You look great, Virge. The whole room will be wishing they looked like you.”   


“I -” Virgil sighed. “Yeah. I’ll try for some confidence tonight. It looks good.  _ I _ look good.”   


“Yes, you do!” Patton beamed. “My best friend is so handsome.”   


Virgil turned red, probably against his wishes, and checked his phone one last time. “We have to get going. We keep getting distracted.”

Patton nodded. “Yeah, we should go.” He nudged Virgil’s shoulder. “Thanks for coming with me. I’m still nervous about literally going to a gala as a second date-thing-whatever like, three hours after I met Logan.” Patton sighed. “See, when I put it like that, it sounds so weird.”   


“It does.”   


“Virgil!”   


He held up his hands. “Technically, you said it first.” He bit his lip. “And for the record… I think it’s sweet.”   


“Really?”   


“Yeah. It’s like a slightly less cheesy Hallmark movie. Maybe Freeform.”   


“I’m good enough for Hallmark.”   


“Sure. Anyways, I think it’s kind of like a love story.”   


“Love story?”   


Virgil ran his fingers through his hair. “I don’t know. I just think it’s cute. Can we go now?”   


“Yeah. We’re gonna be so late.”   


“We could take 86th.”

“ _ No,”  _ Patton said forcefully. “You of all people -” 

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry, it was just a suggestion.”   


Patton sighed. “I know. I know. And it would be so much easier if we could take the damn -”   


“Woah.”   


“I know. If we could just take the damn street, but you know I can’t. Too many bad memories.” He paused. “I freaked out today when Logan didn’t immediately admit why we were at the cafe together. I thought Lainey thought I was lying and I started to panic.”

“Patton…”   


“I thought I was over it too!”   


Virgil put his arm around his friend. “You don’t need to be over it. Lainey understands. And I’m sure Logan does too.”

Patton exhaled slowly. “Right. Let’s get going.”

 

Virgil opened the door to let Patton out. “After you.” Patton smiled and walked out. Virgil followed him, tugging nervously at his sleeves. “Patton…”   


“Yeah?”   


“There’s gonna be a lot of other people there.”   


“Yeah, there will be.”   


“Are you going to let me hang out with you and Logan?”   


“Of course. Why wouldn’t I?”   


“Cause he’s your soulmate.”   


“But you’re my best friend. Virgil, you’re coming because I need you there in case something is weird with Logan. And besides, the crown prince will be there. It’s gotta be at least a little exciting to know that you’re going to get to meet him.”   


“How do you know that?”   


Patton grinned at him. “Have you seen yourself today? You look amazing. He’ll totally want to meet you.”

“And…”   


“And I will blackmail Logan - or something - to make sure Prince Roman comes to meet us.”   


“The prince is probably an asshole.”   


“Don’t say that.”   


“I’m gonna say it.”   


Patton laughed. “Virgil!”

“I said it,” Virgil replied, laughing as well. “In all seriousness -” 

“SPIDER!” Patton shrieked, jumping and clinging to Virgil, forcing him to literally catch him in his arms. Virgil set him down, most definitely annoyed and a little bit confused.

As Patton brushed himself off, Virgil said “Alright, well, now that you’ve gotten over that… do you think the Prince is actually all that like he acts on T.V.?”   


“Stupid frickin’ spiders,” Patton mumbled. 

“It wasn’t a spider.”   


“It was a spider.”   


“It was a piece of black fuzz. I watched it blow away while you were screaming. Now answer my question.”

“I don’t want to be objective. Prince Roman may be a very nice person. Or he may not be so nice. But we haven’t actually met him yet, so we don’t know.”   


Virgil sighed. “You’re right. So, do you normally just jump into people’s arms when you see a piece of fuzz or -”   


“It was a spider, I swear!”   


“I’m sure.”   


Patton glared at him. “They’re evil.”

“Okay, buddy.” Virgil pointed up ahead. “Look. We’re here.”   
  


Roman adjusted his sleeve one last time. “Logan, are we good on everything for tonight?”   


His friend adjusted his glasses. “That was Remy and Joan’s job. I was in charge of you.”

“Did they really need to assign me a babysitter?” Roman grumbled.   


“Roman, I’ve been your babysitter since I started working with you. Yes, they did. Remy! Joan!” Logan called. 

Joan, the palace event coordinator, and Remy, the… something, ran over. “Your Highness. Logan. What did you want?” Remy adjusted his sunglasses and Joan smiled politely. 

“Is everything taken care of for the gala?”   


Joan cocked their head. “Well, I should hope so.” They glanced at their watch. “We should have started by now.”

Remy nodded. “Guests are arriving as we speak.”

Roman dismissed the two with a wave and turned back to Logan. “And the two extra guests…”   


“Patton and his friend who I do not know the name of at this moment are on their way. They should be here any moment.”   


“Fantastic. Stay by my side. I have to go talk to people.”   


After about ten minutes of socializing with some people Roman didn’t really care about, Logan tugged on his sleeve and pointed towards a couple of people walking through the door. “The one on the right - in the blue - that’s Patton. The one in the  purple - that must be his friend.”   


Roman covered his mouth. “Logan,” he whispered, “you didn’t tell me your boyfriend-soulmate-whatever’s friend was hot.”

“I didn’t know. I hadn’t met him before.”   


And he was hot. At least from what Roman could see. The young man was wearing a purple shirt and black jeans - slightly informal, but Roman was definitely okay with letting it slide - and his purple hair was complemented perfectly by his outfit. He looked like a stunning emo model. Stupid soulmate system. He probably already had a boyfriend or girlfriend, and there was Roman, the crown prince of the kingdom, fawning over him like  _ he _ was the celebrity.

“Logan, he’s, like, really attractive.”   


“Roman.”   


“I’m just  _ saying _ -”   


“I know you’re just saying, but please, refrain from commenting on how hot you think he is when we meet the two of them. Make a good first impression.”

“What would I do without you, Logan?” Roman wondered. 

“You would do a much worse job. We've been over this many times.”

The one in the blue - Patton - spotted them and ran over, hugging Logan tightly. Roman was surprised to see Logan hug him back. His friend hung back, clearly uncomfortable. 

Patton let go of Logan, beaming. “Hi, Your Majesty! I’m Patton!” 

Roman was taken aback by the bubbly young man that was in front of him. “Pleasure. You are…?” 

Patton looked a little confused. “I'm... Patton Moras. I'm Logan's soulmate.” 

“Well, it's very nice to meet you, Patton.” Roman gestured to his friend. “Who's this?” 

Logan cleared his throat and pushed up his glasses, evidently trying to regain his professionality after the hug (like the weirdo he was). “I'm assuming this is the friend you mentioned, Patton?” 

He nodded. “This is Virgil. I love him. He's the best. Virge,  _ please _ say hello.” 

Virgil waved. “Virgil Reagan. Nice to meet you, Prince Arellano.” 

“Virgil. What a nice name,” Roman remarked. “It's nice to meet you as well.” 

He nodded. “Yeah. Do you guys want to hear what Patton did on the way over here?” 

Roman blinked, shocked at how informal Virgil was being. “I suppose?” 

Patton crossed his arms in annoyance. “I still think it was justified.” 

“I don't. We were just walking down the street normally, and this piece of black fuzz blows across our path. Patton immediately assumed it was a spider and straight-up  _ jumped into my arms, _ freaking out.” 

“The creepy-crawly death dealers will not get me today,” Patton said, gravely. Logan and Roman both laughed, and Virgil visibly relaxed. The ice had been broken.

“You can hold Patton in your arms?” Roman asked, disbelievingly. “I doubt that.” 

“I… yeah. I can.”

Logan sighed. “Roman, you cannot challenge Virgil to pick up Patton again. We are at a charity gala. People are _ watching. _ ” 

Roman glanced up. People were indeed staring at the prince and the other three. “Oh. I hadn’t noticed.”   


Logan grabbed Patton’s arm. “I wanna show you something.”   


“Okay,” Patton said. “Virgil… can you hang out with the prince? Or do you want me to stay?”

Virgil glanced at Roman. “Are you okay with that, Prince Arellano?”

Roman shrugged. “I don’t mind. I prefer someone my own age who wants to talk about stupid stuff their friends have done to the forty-year-olds who want to ask me about my foreign policy. I don’t even have a foreign policy.”   


Logan put his head in his hands. “Yes, you do. You have a foreign policy. Roman, how do you not know your own foreign policy?”   


“I don’t know.”   


“Well, if you two are gonna be okay, Logan and I should leave.”

Roman waved goodbye as the two walked off. “Virgil, please don’t think this is like, me trying to abandon a gala I’m hosting, but do you want to abandon this gala I’m hosting and go somewhere else? These people kind of suck and I don’t want to interact with them much longer.”   


“Ditching a party with my sovereign ruler to go do something possibly kind of stupid in a massive palace? Sounds fun. I’m in.”

“Great,” Roman said, grabbing Virgil’s arm. “Follow me.”   


“I don’t think I have a choice, you just grabbed onto my arm.” 

Roman rolled his eyes. “I heard you were the antisocial emo one.”   


“I am. I snap out of it when annoying princes grab my arm.” 

“Just follow me.” Roman led Virgil up a few flights of stairs to an innocuous door in (possibly? Roman still hadn’t been everywhere yet) the back of the palace. “Here.” Roman pushed open the door. 

“Is this the roof?”   


“It is. It’s my favorite place in the whole palace.” He thought for a second.”I haven’t even brought Logan up here. I don’t think he’d appreciate it as much as I think he should.”   


“The view of the city is beautiful,” Virgil said, propping the door open behind him so they wouldn’t get locked out. 

Roman sat down on the edge of the roof and patted the ground next to him. “Sit next to me.”   


Virgil sat down. Roman moved his hand slightly to the left so that it was just barely touching Virgil’s. 

And God knows how long they sat there for. 

(Just kidding. Half an hour. Remy texted Roman and told him to “get his ass down to the ballroom or it didn’t matter what Roman’s title was his ass was getting beat”.)

 

Logan led Patton back to a room in the middle of the castle and turned on the lights. “It’s not quite as fancy as the ballroom, but this is my favorite room in the palace.”

Patton looked around. “The library. How am I not surprised?” He laughed. “It is a beautiful library, though.”

“Isn’t it?” Logan ran his hand over spines of the books. “I love it. Roman never comes down here. It’s my escape.”   


“Yeah, it’s nice. It looks almost as nice…” Patton said, putting his hand on Logan’s arm, “as you do tonight.”   


Logan blushed. “Thank you.”   


“Now…” Patton grabbed Logan’s tie and pulled Logan closer towards himself. “I say we take advantage of the fact that Roman never comes down here.” 

He kissed Logan. 

  
Thomas got up and started to walk around. This place looked weirdly familiar. It was almost like he'd been there before...   


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> patton is definitely at least a little drunk
> 
> please draw patton jumping into virge's arms and send it to me at @adultmorelikeadolt on tumblr i'll love you forever
> 
> like comment and subscribe and leave a comment and a kudos!!


	4. aNGST

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> it started so cute and then i hit the ANGST button and let the goblin in my head type the rest 
> 
> two chapters in two days?? i am on FIRE

Virgil glanced around as soon as they reached the ballroom floor. “Logan and Patton aren’t back.” 

Roman waved him off. “Let them be. Logan is the nerdiest person I know. They’re probably at the library I know he goes to all the time. It’s his favorite place in this massive goddamn castle.”

Virgil nodded. “I’ve been meaning to ask you something. Well, two things. First, why are you still a prince? Your parents…” He trailed off, realizing that that may not be the best way to go about it. “You could be the king. But you’re still Crown Prince Roman.”   


Roman sighed. “I wasn’t supposed to take over for my dad until I was twenty-five. Even now that he’s gone, I still want to wait to be king until I’m twenty-five.”   


“So you have two more years until you’re king?”   


“Two more years.”   


“And for the second question, do you have a soulmate?”   


“I do. I’ve never met him - or her, preferably a him though - before. And I don’t plan on it.”   


Virgil cocked his head. “Why not?”   


“I don't have time. It’s not worth it to go looking.”   


“Well… what if they’re just sitting around, and waiting for you?”   


Roman huffed. “Well, then, they need to get over it. It’s not like they could know that it’s me that isn’t replying.”   


“You’re right,” Virgil conceded. 

“Do you have a soulmate?” Roman asked. 

“I don’t think so. If I do, they don’t care enough about me to actually prove that they're my soulmate.” Virgil thought about it for a second, glancing at Roman. “Could that mean…?” He dismissed the thought with a shake of his head. “No way.”

At that moment, somebody Virgil didn’t recognize but Roman - could he call the prince Roman? - clearly did walked over. 

“Roman, the party is going super well,” the new person said, quickly being accompanied by someone else who was wearing sunglasses… indoors… at nine o’clock or so at night. 

Roman smiled. “Thank you, Joan. I have to give most of the credit to you, though. You did amazingly.” 

Sunglasses looked Virgil up and down. “You look like the kid who wrote My Chemical Romance lyrics on his arm in sixth grade and yelled at the music teacher for playing a G note on the piano.”   


“Yeah, well, you look like the kid who tripped in gym class in eighth grade, broke his sunglasses, and then cried.”

Roman just looked confused. “That’s so… specific.”

Joan stared at the two of them. “Why was that so specific?”   


Virgil grinned. “Remy?”   


“Virgil!”   


“I’m  _ so _ confused,” Roman said. 

“We know each other! We went to middle school together!” Remy lowered his sunglasses. “Please don’t tell anyone else about the sunglasses thing.”   


“Remy, I’ve told literally everyone about that.”   


Joan sighed in defeat. “I’m just gonna go.”   


Roman waved at them as they left. “Bye, Joan.”   


Remy looked around the ballroom. “If you’re here, Patton must be around here somewhere.”

Virgil waved him off. “We lost him a long time ago. He’s dating - I think - Prince Roman’s assistant.”   


Remy glanced at Roman. “Logan?” 

Roman nodded. “Logan. We lost them about an hour ago.”   


“Patton is Logan’s soulmate? What a small world.”   


Roman cleared his throat. “Remy. Can you check in on the kitchens?”   


“Sure thing, boss.” Remy waved and left. 

“Aw, he calls you boss like Lainey does to Patton,” Virgil mumbled. “That’s cute.”

  
  
Roman glanced around. “This gala is long.”   


“You’re - you’re hosting it. There’s gotta be something you’re supposed to do here, Prince Arellano.”

“I mean, I didn’t really plan it. Joan, they’re my event coordinator. They usually get everything set up. Remy does… whatever Remy wants, apparently. He’s a huge help, though. And Logan makes sure everything I need is prepped and I’m ready to go. I don’t think…” He paused and sighed sadly. “I don't think I’ve ever had a real say in planning the parties and meetings and whatever. And I suppose… I’m not the best prince. I used to think I was invincible and then my parents…” Virgil put a hand on his shoulder. It was kind of awkward, but the gesture was sweet. “And then my parents died and I became the ruler. I had to learn how to work with all these people I didn’t care enough to learn the names of before. I never truly grew out of being the prince. I guess that’s more of the reason why I don’t want to be king -” Roman shook his head. “What am I doing? This isn’t a therapy session. I don’t need to tell you anything.”   


“Roman. When’s the last time you talked to anyone about any of this?”   


“Never?   


Virgil sighed. “Please. I know it’s not my place - you’re my crown prince, and we’ve only known each other for two hours - but it helps. I promise. It sounds like you’ve been through a lot.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

“Should we -” Virgil’s sentence was interrupted by a sudden flicker of the ballroom lights. 

“What was that?” Roman asked as the lights went out completely. 

He felt a hand in his. “Virgil? Is that you?”   


“Y-yeah. It is. Prince Arellano, what’s going on?”   


Roman squeezed Virgil’s hand. “It’s going to be okay.”   


“Oh, yes. It’s all going to be just fine,” a sinister voice said, the tone almost snakelike in nature. “You’re not in any danger.”   


Virgil latched onto Roman’s arm. “It’s him.” 

“Who?”

“No one important,” the voice said, laughing in a way that could only be described as evil.

“I have to get out of here,” Virgil muttered. “I have to find Patton.”   


Roman moved his hand back down so that he was holding Virgil’s again. “I swear on my life, Virgil, I’ll protect you.”   
  


Logan and Patton were still in the library when the lights went out.

“Logan?” Patton sounded terrified. If he had been a little drunk before, the shock had quickly sobered him up.   


“Yes, Patton?”

“Do you know what’s going on?”   


“I do not. It may be just one of Remy’s pranks.”   


“It’s all going to be just fine. You’re not in any danger,” the snakelike voice said. 

Patton clung to Logan. “It’s him.”   


“Who is that?”   


“Deceit. It’s Deceit. I have to get out of here, Logan,  _ I have to get out. _ ” Patton’s voice was panicked. “Logan, you have to help me, I have to get out of here - “   


Logan put his hand on Patton’s chest. “Breathe. Please. You have to breathe.”   


“Logan, I -”   


“Patton. Just breathe.”   


Patton took a deep breath. “At the very least, we need to find Virgil.”   


“Patton, I don’t know if we can.”   


“Logan, listen to me. Please, I have to find Virgil,” Patton begged.   


“I- I’m so sorry. I am so sorry. We have to get to a safe room.”   


“Logan, please.” Patton’s voice cracked. “I don’t know what to do. I need you to do this one thing for me.”   


“I don’t know what to say, Pat. We have to one of the safe rooms. Virgil might be in our safe room. But that’s all I can promise. I’m so sorry. But it is my job to keep you safe and for all we know, Roman and Virgil could be anywhere. I cannot tell you that we will find him. I know that’s not what you want to hear.”   


“No, Logan, you don’t understand,” Patton said, desperately. “I’ve met Deceit before. It ended horribly and messed me up for life. It lost me one of my best friends and left Virgil to pick up all the pieces. He nearly destroyed me mentally. Virgil knows - Virgil knows the whole story. He knows me. Logan -” Patton broke down, tears falling thickly.   


Logan bit his lip. “Virgil and Roman are in Roman’s personal safe room. It’s a floor above us and we’re going to have to run. But we can make it.” He held out his hand to Patton. “Come with me.”

Logan clasped tightly onto Patton’s hand and led him through the corridors and up a flight of stairs. When they reached the prince’s bedroom, Logan pressed his hand to the wall next to it and a section of the wall slid away, revealing a dark room. 

“Roman?”   


“In the back. Shut the door behind you.”

Logan turned around and pressed his hand to the wall again. “Is Virgil here too?”   


“Here,” Virgil said, stepping towards them. “What’s wrong?”

 

Patton collapsed into Virgil’s arms. “I-it’s him, Virge, it’s him - “   


“I know, Pat, I know. Shh, it’s okay.”   


“He’s back. I thought he was gone. If he’s back, where’s - “ his sentence was cut off by a loud sob. “Logan, you must think I’m insane.”   


Patton heard Logan sit down next to the ball of Patton and Virgil and Roman scoot closer to the three of them. “No, Patton. I don’t think you’re insane. I think that whatever happened to you, it was very traumatic and you’re relapsing into memories right now.”   


Patton started crying harder. “Virgil, what if he finds us again?”   


“He’s not going too. Shh, shh, calm down. It’s going to be okay.” Virgil started to hum softly, much to the evident surprise of the other two. It was a little weird to see Virgil be the calm, parental one.

Patton relaxed a little. “I’m sorry, guys. I didn’t mean -” He sniffled. “I didn’t mean for you to see me like this.”   


Logan looked at him sadly. “I can’t believe you would think that we would be annoyed or mad about this.”   


Roman nodded in agreement. “Something horrible happened to you. It’s not something you can just get over, Patton. None of us blame you.”   


“But… would either of you mind telling us what happened? It might help us understand what’s going on,” Logan added.

Patton shared a look with Virgil, who nodded slowly.  _ I think you should _ , he seemed to say. 

“About a year ago, I was at one of the shops on 86th Street, waiting outside for Virgil, who was still finishing up, with one of my other best friends, Thomas. Deceit - he told us his name was Damon, but we decided to call him Deceit, makes him seem less human - came up to us and struck up a conversation. I went back inside, wanting to check on Virgil and make sure we could get going soon. 

“And then I heard Thomas scream.” Patton’s voice cracked at the end of the sentence.   


Logan and Roman both looked intrigued and horrified at the same time. 

“I rushed outside, leaving Virgil in the store and got back out there just in time to see Deceit wink at me and then disappear seemingly into thin air with Thomas. Virgil called the cops, and they took our witness statements. 

“I told them what I saw. I told the officer that interviewed me that I watched Deceit disappear with him, kidnap him and then leave without a trace. He laughed at me. Called me crazy. There wasn’t a record of a Damon anywhere in the system, let alone one matching the description we gave him. I told him that I wasn’t lying but he didn’t believe me. I panicked. My best friend had vanished into thin air and no one believed me.   


“But what does it matter?” Patton wiped a tear from his eye. “I haven’t seen Thomas in a year. But they stopped investigating his disappearance. Virgil is one of the only people that stuck by me. I was the crazy person who believed that people could just disappear into thin air. But I’m not crazy! I know what I saw! I swear on my life, I’m not lying.”   


Virgil pulled Patton close to him. “Buddy, calm down.”   


Logan was quiet for a few moments. “Thomas Sanders?”   


Virgil blinked a couple times. “Yeah. Thomas Sanders. Why?”   


“He used to work here. Joan, the events coordinator here, was his platonic soulmate. We didn’t even know… we thought he just quit one day,” Roman said. 

“That’s really sad. I think I remember him saying that he worked here... it's all kind of fuzzy.”   


Logan moved closer so that he could hug Patton. “I’m so sorry that happened to you.” 

Roman hugged the other three as well. “Me too. No human should ever have to go through that.”   


Patton smiled a little. “Thanks, guys.”   
  


Thomas realized his phone was in his pocket. He pulled it out. 

_ Threat at the Arellano Palace. Several injured, none fatally so. Prince Roman Arellano is confirmed to be safe.  _

Where  _ was _ he? 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please don't kill me i love the sides i really do 
> 
> like comment subscribe leave kudos etc etc


	5. it's mostly logan sorry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> logan actually knows a lot more about roman than he lets on 
> 
> and patton when he's woken up is so me

Roman woke up in the safe room, in the corner next to Virgil. He tried to recall the night before - Deceit. The person who had orchestrated the attack on the palace. Who’d almost ruined Patton’s life and kidnapped somebody. 

Somebody better hold Roman back.  

Logan, who had been curled up with Patton in one of the opposite corners from the other two, made his way over to Roman. “Any alerts from security?”   


Roman held up his phone, showing Logan an empty screen. “Nothing.”   


“We’ve been here for almost ten hours.”   


“Well, clearly, they want us to stay a little bit longer,” Roman grumbled. “I don’t like it either, Logan. But it’s the one thing I can’t overrule.”   


Virgil sat up, rubbing his eyes. “Could you two shut up? I was trying to sleep.”   


“It’s already seven o’clock. Surely, you would have been up by now normally.” Logan checked his cellphone for news.    


“And surely, you would’ve known that when I say shut up, I mean it.”   


“Virgil, lighten up. We’re all scared,” Roman said, attempting a soothing voice. 

“I don’t really care about that right now. You woke me up.”

“How can you not care about the fact that we’re trapped in a safe room because someone attacked the palace, which, by the way, is one of the safest buildings in this country? It’s just illogical not to be scared.” Logan checked his phone again. He was doing so almost compulsively now, Roman observed. 

Virgil pulled his knees close to his chest. “Well, of course I’m scared. But for a second there, I wasn’t scared cause I was just annoyed my friends woke me up. You’ve never done something like that? Magnify the small things to forget about the big things.”   


“I guess I have. I just…” Logan sighed, checking his phone again. “I don’t scare easily. And the longer we’re trapped in this safe house, the more afraid I become, and the less I feel in control of myself. Logic and facts are what I do. The longer we’re stuck here, the less sense it makes to me.”

“Well, that’s… something we should talk about later.” Roman sounded concerned. 

Virgil nodded. “I’m gonna grab Patton’s phone. He was supposed to open his shop today. I’ve gotta call the manager and tell her… something. She needs to open up.”   


Roman blinked. “Patton owns a shop?”   


Logan smiled softly. “Yeah. Cute little cafe on Graham. It does pretty well.”

“That’s really cool.”   


Virgil crawled over to Patton, taking the phone from his sleeping friend. “You two shush.” He moved back over towards Roman and Logan, dialing a number on Patton’s phone and putting it on a low-volume speaker. “Lainey?”   


“Virgil? Why are you calling me from Patton’s phone?”   


“Cause it’s about Blackberries. I need you to open today, okay?”   


“Why?”   


“I don’t know if I can say. I’m not sure if Patton can make it this morning.”   


“Virgil, what’s wrong?”   


“Nothing, Lainey,” Virgil said. Roman caught a hint of exasperation in his voice. “Please, just open the shop today. We need you to.”

“Alright, if it’s that important. Can I talk to Patton?”   


“Not right now. I’ll see you later, got it?”   


“Yeah. Catch you later.”   


Virgil clicked off the call, sighing. “You can’t just  _ tell _ someone you’re trapped in a safe room at the palace, right?”   


“No. It wouldn’t be taken well.” Roman leaned against the wall, thinking. Were Joan and Remy alright? And the rest of the castle staff and all of his guests. What had happened to them? There were barely enough safe rooms or shelters to accommodate them all. And there were guests that needed to get home to their families… Some had even come from other countries. This, to sum it all up, was a fucking  _ disaster _ .

  
Logan felt a little embarrassed that he had woken up cuddling Patton, but it didn’t bother him too much that he had done it, just that he had done it in front of his boss and Patton’s best friend. 

It was of no importance now. Whatever formalities he had presumed were needed with Virgil and Roman were out the window now that they’d been stuck in this safe room for way longer than they should have been. As much as Logan liked to sustain the facade that he didn’t stress easy, he was getting even more stressed each passing second they were trapped in the room, waiting for the security alert to free them. 

As Virgil made the call to Patton’s manager, Logan watched his soulmate sleep. (But like, not in a creepy way.) Patton was the only one who still slept, and none of the others wanted to wake him - especially not Logan. Logan still felt bad about last night, and the revelation of Patton’s backstory felt all kinds of forced. It was a terrible way for someone to be treated, and it made Logan sick to his stomach that people still made fun of someone as sweet as Patton for something he had no control over. 

It was good that he had someone like Virgil. If Logan had seen the two separately, or hadn’t previously known how close they were to each other, he most likely would jumped to the conclusion (against his beliefs, Logan maintained that jumping to conclusions wasn’t good at all, but sometimes it was just the first thing your brain did) that they were not friends. 

But they were. And someone more prone to jealousy than Logan might be intimidated by how close Virgil and Patton were, but Logan wasn’t. 

At the very least, he didn’t know them well enough to be jealous.

“Logan?” Roman asked, pulling Logan out of his thoughts. 

“Yes, Roman?” 

“Check your phone.”

Logan glanced down at his cell hopefully.  _ The threat has been contained  _ \- whatever that meant -  _ and it is safe to return to your day to day activities. Prince Arellano and Mr. Sinclair - Ms. Roxanne Marrs requests your presence as soon as you can make yourselves decent.  _

Logan threw his arms around Roman and hugged him tightly. “Thank Crofters!” 

Virgil laughed. “Excuse me, thank  _ what? _ ”

Logan let go of Roman. “Nothing.” He got up and kneeled down next to the sleeping Patton, trying to gently shake him awake. Virgil knelt down next to Logan and shook his head. “Patton is the hardest person to wake up in the history of  _ ever _ . Here,” Virgil said, pulling his phone out of his pocket. “Do My Own Thing. Second song. Proven to wake Patton up every time if you play it at full volume.” 

“You're going to blast music in his ears?” 

“Yes, exactly.”

“Why?”

“Because he yelled at me that last time I used the airhorn.”   


“What even  _ is _ your friendship?”

“It’s very special. I’d back up if I were you.”

Logan went and sat back down next to Roman, still relatively confused. While Virgil continued to blare music into Patton's ears, Roman checked the fabric of his suit for any rips or general dirt. “Logan, does this look okay?” 

“It looks fine. Why do you think Roxanne wants to see us?”

“I have no -” 

“VIRGIL, YOU ABSOLUTE GODDAMN  _ FUCKER -”  _

“- idea,” Roman finished, stifling a giggle at Patton's exclamation. “Shall we bid our guests goodbye?” 

“Sure.” 

About thirty minutes later, after Roman and Logan had gotten sufficiently cleaned up and Logan had deemed his own outfit suitable enough to see Roxanne (the prince’s main advisor) Logan met Roman at the latter’s room and they made their way through the halls of the palace to the advisor’s office.

Roman opened the door, Logan closing it as he walked in. 

“Ms. Marrs.”

She stood. “Your Majesty. Mr. Sinclair.” 

Roman nodded. “Have a seat, Roxanne. Tell me, why have you invited Logan and I here today?” 

“Well, I believe it's concerning the two guests Mr. Sinclair invited here last night.” 

Logan started. “Virgil and Patton?” 

“What about them?” Roman asked. “They were here on my invitation.” 

“Mr. Sinclair, I assume you mean Misters Reagan and Moras. Friendship is no excuse to shirk formalities.” 

Logan grit his teeth. Normally, he was all for formality, but Roxanne talked liked she ran the damn country. “Moras is pronounced ‘more-ahs.’ Like morals without the l.” 

“Thank you, Mr. Sinclair. Now, Your Majesty, you said they were here on your personal invitation?” 

“Correct. Patton - Mr. Moras - is Logan’s soulmate -” Logan nodded - “and Mr. Reagan is a personal friend,” Roman lied. Though technically, Virgil was Roman’s quasi-friend, so it wasn't a complete lie. 

“I have it on good authority that you and Mr. Reagan were up on the roof for a while last night.” 

“That is correct.” 

Logan watched the back and forth with interest. “The roof?”   


“Logan -”   


"I’m not going say anything.”  _ Yet, _ Logan thought to himself.

“What if cameras had found their way up there? They could have turned this into a romantic thing. I thought you had decided to go for a more professional appearance since you’re still young.”   


Logan sighed internally.  _ That’s what Remy did. Publicist. Among other things. He was in one day and wouldn’t come back until two in the morning the next.  _

But that was unimportant. Right now, Roman was arguing with his advisor and Logan was sitting there, feeling far too uncomfortable for his liking. 

“I did. I was merely showing a friend the view of the city. We came back when we were told to.”   


“But you also housed the two of them in our safe room last night.”   


“Yes. That I did.”   


“That room is supposed to be reserved for you and maybe Mr. Sinclair. But visitors? Never. It is against the rules.”   


Roman looked insanely annoyed, and Logan swore you could cut the tension with a knife. “Ms. Marrs. I am the leader of this country. Virgil -”   


“Mr. Reagan,” she corrected. 

Roman stared at her and said, “ _ Virgil _ and I were together at the time of the attack. It only made sense to take him with me. And Logan was close by with Patton as well. Surely, the safety of our citizens outweighs the rules?”

“Your Highness -”   


“Roxanne, at the end of the day, I am no less mortal than any of the other people at this party, and the only thing that determined my status above them was my parents. I am not one to turn people away from safety. Virgil and Patton were in danger the same as Logan and I. At that moment,  _ that _ is what mattered.”   


“Prince Arellano!”   


Roman stood up and motioned for Logan to do the same. “Ms. Marrs, I hate to do this, but please, I am still your prince and I am still your boss. Please call us back later.”

Logan and Roman walked out as Roman shut the door behind him. Logan turned to the prince, genuinely amazed. “I have to say, that was… badass. You really are a good ruler.”   


Roman half-smiled. “I - thank you, Logan.”   


“And about the roof…”   


“I swear to god if you try and turn this into something -”   


Logan put his hands up in defense but gave a sly smile. “I won’t say anything! I just think it’s interesting that you took Virgil to the roof, which is somewhere you have told me on more than occasion is where your ideal date would be, at nighttime so you could see all the city lights.”   


“You shut your goddamn mouth and do not say a word of this to Patton.”   


“I won’t. I swear.”   
  


Patton stuck his hands in his pockets as they walked back to the cafe so Patton could check in. “Did you like Logan and Roman?”

“I like Roman. I barely got to meet Logan. What were you guys  _ doing? _ ” 

Patton opened his mouth to speak and then Virgil clearly rethought his question, adding “But if the answer is each other, I don't want to know.” 

Pattom laughed. “No, no, of course not. We kissed a couple times, but that was it.” 

“Uh huh. Were you planning on telling me that?”

“Eventually.” 

“Ha.” Virgil grinned. “I approve. You can date him.” 

“I don't need your approval!” Patton giggled. “But thank you.” They rounded the corner and Patton's smile brightened as he saw a couple of his employees waving at him through the window. “How are they here?” 

“Oh, I called Laines while you were still asleep in the safe room.” 

Patton felt extremely grateful. “Virge! I can't believe you'd even think of that!” 

Virgil reddened. “I was just being nice.” 

“You're the best.” Patton opened the door. “Laines! Talyn!” 

Both of them waved. “Patton!” Lainey exclaimed. “Are you alright?” 

Talyn nodded, concerned as well. “You too, Virge. Are you guys okay?” 

“We’re fine.” 

“Did you guys hear about the guy who attacked Prince Roman’s palace last night?” Talyn showed the two of them their phone, the phone screen displaying a news article about the recent attack.

“Yeah. We were there.”   


Lainey and Talyn gasped simultaneously. “You were?!”

 

Virgil shoved his hands deep into his pockets. He wasn’t in the mood to relive all of last night just yet. Even if it wasn’t as emotionally challenging for him as it was for Patton, it was still taxing. “Yeah. We were.”   


“How did you get in?” Talyn asked.

Virgil relaxed. They didn’t care about the attack. Just the party. He could talk about the party. “Patton’s boyfriend or whatever works for Prince Arellano. He invited Patton, Patton invited me.”   


“ _ Boyfriend _ ?!” Talyn squealed. “Pat, you found your soulmate!”   


“Uh, yeah. I did.”   


“Aw!” Lainey cooed. “That’s so cute. I’m so happy for you!”   


Virgil smiled softly as they talked to Patton about Logan and such. Patton was always careful around Virgil, and while he appreciated Patton caring enough to realize that sometimes, Virgil didn’t want to hear about everybody else’s soulmates, he wasn’t ostracized or anything for not actually having a soulmate. They were a fact of life. And some people didn’t have them. 

In the long run, who  _ cared? _ It wasn’t even likely that if he did have a soulmate, they would even love him back. 

 

Thomas made a fist. The room didn’t appear to have any walls.

He swung through the darkness. Nothing. 

He moved forward and stumbled. There  _ was _ something in this room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> liek comment and subsrcibe  
> and follow me on tumblr @adultmorelikeadolt where i post stories, textposts, and reblog anything and everything


	6. i don't even know anymore

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> it's been a hot minute hasn't it
> 
> i got distracted for like,,, five days sorry guys

Logan clutched a notebook close to his chest, laying back on his bed in his room in Roman’s castle, still thinking about their conversation with Roxanne earlier. She had made some valid points - kind of - but mostly it just seemed like she had it out for Virgil and Patton. Which is weird, because she didn’t seem to hate any of the other visitors, just the ones who had a connection to him and the prince.

The other thing that conversation had brought up that he couldn’t quite figure out was that Roman had taken Virgil to a spot he had explicitly told him was a spot reserved for if he ever wanted to date his soulmate. 

And something wasn’t perfectly falling into place for him. Did Roman know something about Virgil that Logan didn’t? What about Virgil’s soulmate?  


**Logan Sinclair (Me) Sent 11:29 AM:** Patton, has Virgil met his soulmate?   


There was a long stretch of time in between his text and Patton’s response. Virgil must _not_ have met his soulmate because he didn’t seem the type to ignore the predetermined system that bound people to one another, which is a fancy way of saying Logan didn’t think he would be cheating on his soulmate. So by way of that logic, Virgil… didn’t have one?

 

 **Patton Moras <3 (Received 11:53 AM): **He doesn’t have one.

 

Logan mentally congratulated himself on figuring it out.

 

 **Logan Sinclair (Me) (Sent 11:55 AM):** Okay. Cool.

 **Patton Moras <3 (Received 11:57 AM): **You don’t think it’s weird?

 **Logan Sinclair (Me) (Sent 11:58 AM):** No. I don’t.

 

Logan opened the notebook he’d been holding since he laid down. Full of things he’d written down and never wanted to forget. It wasn’t entirely reserved for homework back when he was in school, or ideas for essays he could write, but it was filled with important things to him.

He never intended to be a prince’s assistant all his adult life. But the second he quit, he was left with no home and no money and no job prospects. Just a degree in BioChem and a quasi-boyfriend that he’d met… last night.

God, if he gave it more than three seconds of thought, his and Patton’s relationship was so _weird_. They’d really have to get to know each other better. Their relationship was rushed, and it was fragile...but he wanted it to last. That's the thing with soulmates - once you found yours, why wait around?

There were some people who met their soulmate at birth, and some yet to find theirs at 90 years old. So they didn't have Tinder, they had dating apps designed to find you your soulmate. Algorithm after algorithm matching one pen mark to another on someone else's skin.

And yet some people still never found that someone.

So, in truth, he shouldn't - and he didn't- want to take it slow with Patton.

He thought about it for a couple seconds more and dialed Patton's phone number. He picked up on the second ring.

“Logan!”

“Hey, Pat.” Logan smiled against his will. Patton always made him do that. “I have a proposal for you.”

 

\---

 

Patton nearly dropped his phone in shock. “I - uh -” He stumbled over his words. “Logan, it's been, like, a day and a half -”

Logan laughed, and Patton relaxed a little bit. “You misunderstand. I meant an idea for something we could do.”

“Oh. That makes way more sense,” Patton said, relieved. “What did you want to do?”

“Well, I was thinking… let's start over. Have a real first date. At a restaurant. Talk about our families and our friends and what we would do if we had a million dollars. Stuff like that.” Logan's voice wasn't stiff or formal, it was soft. Hopeful, maybe. Similar to the way it sounded when he was comforting Patton last night.

It sounded good.

“That sounds like a great idea, Logan. But you have to formally ask me.” Patton grinned.

“I do?”

“Yes. You do.”

Logan took a deep breath. “Here goes, then. Patton, would you like to go out on a date with me tonight?”

“Yes, of course.” Logan sounded about as nervous as if he was asking Patton to be his date to the prom. The nervousness was weird, because even if they hadn’t already officially been on a date, they still would be meant for each other and so what was the point of being nervous when you know that you can’t fail?

“Alright. I shall plan this one. I’ll pick you up around seven thirty. I’ll see you later, Patton.” Logan hung up, leaving a beaming Patton with a great night ahead of him.

Starting over was good. Patton wished he could start over sometimes. Not with anything in particular, there were just some mistakes he’d made over the course of his life that he’d love to correct, or just to change for the better. Things he’d said, things he wished he had told his friends, his parents… things he should have done. Things he shouldn’t have done.

Don’t we all have things we want to go back and fix?

Patton shook his head, trying to clear that train of thought from his head. It was just a date.   


\---

 

Virgil checked his phone again, trying to make sure he was home by a decent time. Of course, it was only noon, so he didn’t need to be home for… some amount of time.

 

 **pat™ (Received at 12:05 PM)** : Hey!! We didn’t have anything planned tonight, right??

 

 **me (Sent at 12:05 PM)** : nah. why?

 

 **pat™ (Received at 12:06 PM):** Logan asked me out on a date tonight!! Like a real one!!!! At a nice restaurant!!!

 

 **me (Sent at 12:07 PM)** : that’s awesome man. get some

 

 **pat™ (Received at 12:07 PM):** VIRGIL   


**me (Sent at 12:08 PM)** : haha just kidding. have lots of fun

 

 **pat™ (Received at 12:08 PM):** Aha I will. Go say hi to the shop for me while you’re out, okay?

 

 **me (Sent at 12:08 PM)** : can u ask lo for prince arellano’s #

 

 **pat™ (Received at 12:09 PM):** I’ll just give Logan yours and he can give it to Prince Roman. Have fun!!!!!

 

Virgil chuckled and put his phone back into his pocket. He wasn’t too far from the shop, but he was just there. He had some time to spare. For the city that he lived in, he never really walked around much.

One would think that a city as massive as that of La Ciudad Real would give Virgil anxiety with all the people walking around (it was a popular tourist city) but if he just kept his headphones in and stared at the ground it didn’t bother him as much.

So he kept his head down. And it was peaceful, no sounds of taxis, no people yelling, just P!ATD and a little bit of background noise.

La Ciudad Real - the Royal City - was named for the sprawling palace in the center, also known as Roman’s house. Since it housed the Hispanic-descended royal family, (or rather, it was supposed to, but there was only one royal right now) the city was named La Ciudad Real. It was a pretty name, in Virgil’s opinion, for the tall buildings and the smaller shops and the dirty alleyways.   
He took one earbud out and immediately put it back in, disliking the sound of the screaming people. Virgil walked a little farther, trying to decide where he was going. He knew he needed to visit the shop, and eat, probably, but he was content for now to just walk through the streets until he reached a decent restaurant. There was a pretty good Thai place on 84th, if it wasn’t too crowded. Luckily, tourists tended to avoid small restaurants in favor if larger chain restaurants, so it was pretty much empty.

Virgil was getting ahead of himself. He wasn’t even there yet. The streets were still ahead of him.

Walking and thinking went hand in hand for Virgil. And right now, he was thinking about the cute prince he’d met last night with no soulmate and no intentions to find one and stupid it was that he found him cute. Their relationship was founded on their friends dating and how Roman had decided to take Virgil up to the roof and their hands touching while they were up there, and the fact that his brain needed to _shut up_. He was overthinking it (as always) and there was probably a simpler, less hopeless romantic-esque reason for everything.

An unknown number rang, interrupting his song. He ignored it.

 

\---

 

Roman paced the empty ballroom, reeling from a recent meeting with a security advisor. “Have more respect for your title, he says, well, I think you need to have more respect for your sovereign,” he mumbled, adjusting his crown slightly. He was aware of Remy and Joan - and some unknown third person that wasn’t anyone he knew too well - standing on one of the balconies, watching him concernedly.  And why shouldn’t they? Roman was not at his best this morning. Ever since the other three had left, he’d been in and out of meeting after meeting after meeting and nothing productive had happened, which meant Roman was frustrated and annoyed and generally unpleasant to be around, so he could see why they kept their distance. He glanced up at the balcony, noticing Remy say something to the third unidentified person, and as they all walked down the stairs towards Roman, the prince sighed and stood up straight to greet his employees and the other person.

“Your Majesty.” Remy bowed his head. “This is Captain Diaz from the local police force. She’s here to discuss the events of last night.”

“Captain.” Roman held out his hand. “Pleased to make your acquaintance.”

She shook it. “Yours as well, Prince Arellano.”

“Remy, Joan, why are you two here? If this is a security matter, we should have the head of security here,” Roman said, confused.

“Well, my prince, we have a proposition for you.” Remy held out his phone, showing him an article titled “Attack on Palace”. “Rumors are already begun to spread about last night. People are scared. We want to do a conference or an interview to inform people what really happened.”

Roman bit back a rather rude remark. “And the police captain is here because…?” he asked, prompting them to continue his sentence.

“Captain Diaz is here to assist our security team. She’s the best La Ciudad Real has to offer,” Joan said, nodding their head as they spoke. “We understand that this may not make the most sense to you, Prince Arellano, but your publicist and your head advisor and I have all agreed that this is the best option. I, of course, was only involved because I’m the smartest person in the palace.” That made Roman laugh, causing him to relax a little bit. Joan had a way of making anyone laugh, no matter the situation. He was good at easing the tension in situations like this. “I’m kidding. I’m here because we need to make this an event. Invite press crews. Reassure the city that Deceit will do us no harm. Captain Diaz will assist with security, as your guard was… diminished.”

Roman took a shaky breath. “I thought no one died,” he whispered, mostly to himself, fear and a tinge of annoyance encasing his words.

“You thought wrong, I’m afraid,” the captain said. “I do not believe you were intended to know. But you do now. And I promise, Your Majesty, that we will keep you safe from this threat.”

Roman had half a mind to march into his advisor’s office and slap her for keeping the correct statistics from him. “Thank you, Captain Diaz. Shall we get started on planning this thing?”  


\---

 

Thomas reached down to inspect whatever he had just kicked accidentally. It was small, from what he could tell, and cold to the touch.

All of a sudden, the light flickered on. Dim, but illuminating enough so that Thomas could finally see.

_Hello, Thomas._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> don't forget to liiiiiiiiike comment and subscriiiiiiiiiiibe
> 
> does ao3 even know what spacing is??
> 
> @adultmorelikeadolt - tumblr


	7. gay

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> it's just,,, gay
> 
> also virgil's family is all my personal hc and you don't have to like them but i figured he deserved a good one
> 
> s/o to @romanochez i posted it get off my ass now please

Patton looked at his watch. He still had five hours until he had to even think about getting ready for his date, and Virgil was out, so he had all five hours to himself. And since Patton didn't have anything better to do, he figured he might as well do one of his favorite things, which was baking. Virgil had never really understood the appeal of baking - in fact, Patton distinctly remembered something he once said about baking things being a waste of time when you're just going to eat them three hours later and all your effort would be for nothing - so it wasn't a complete shame that Virgil wasn’t there. Besides,  he could focus and watch all the stupid shows he wanted on TV that Virgil didn't like. Or, at the very least, that Virgil  _ claimed  _ he didn't like. ( Virgil could protest all he wanted, Patton knows what HGTV looks like.) But anyways, Patton was in a very chocolate-chip cookie mood right now, and no one was here to stop him. 

Patton hummed softly as he prepared the batter. Baking was a stress reliever for him, and it was a good thing he ran Blackberries and could sell his treats, because he lived alone and he certainly couldn’t eat all the cookies by himself. 

He wondered how much longer he’d be living alone for. That was the weird thing about soulmates - once you met them, there was no point in waiting. The world didn’t know what it was like to actually have to go on dates. To agonize over never finding the right person. They were out there. The universe knew. 

So why didn’t everyone just get married the second they met their soulmate and do the getting-to-know-you stuff later?

Who knows. Culture? 

Patton grabbed the melon baller and started to scoop the batter onto the cookie sheet. If Logan and Patton moved in together, would Patton get to live in the palace? Would Logan even want to work in the palace forever? He’d have ask Logan about that tonight.    


If Logan did still work for Prince Roman when they decided to take that step, Patton sincerely hoped he got to live in the castle. Every rational person wanted to live in a castle.

Patton had been dreaming about his wedding since he first learned about soulmates. Call him girly or whatever, it doesn’t matter. If you think that planning your wedding is “girly”, you’re the problem. Who wouldn’t naturally want to think about one of the biggest days of your life? And with Logan… that adorable glasses-wearing dork. Patton sighed dreamily, lost in his thoughts. 

The oven dinged, letting Patton know that his cookies were done. He took them out and set them out to cool, heading to the couch to take a nap before the date. 

 

\---

 

Virgil was just taking his headphones out to order when he heard someone call his name. 

“V! Virgil! Oh my god, is that you? I hope it’s you, otherwise this is really awkward!”   


He cringed internally (because he knew exactly who it was and he didn’t know why  _ they _ were here) and turned to face his youngest sibling. “Ali Reagan, oh my god guys, they’re here! Break out the cameras and start taking pictures!” 

“V, you know I would hate that,” they said, running up to him and giving him a hug. “I can’t believe I just randomly saw you here! It’s been a few months, V, Mommy and Mama and even Natasha are wondering why you haven’t dropped by.” 

“Nat’s been wondering about me?” Virgil chuckled, motioning for Ali to join him at a table. “The world has gone crazy. Al, don’t you have to be at school?”   


“It’s spring break, dipshit,” they retorted, sticking out their tongue. “I don’t have to be anywhere except talking to my favorite older brother.”

“Language, Ali,” Virgil chided. “I’ve always wondered how Nat came to be the only cishet person in a family full of LGBT+ people.”   


Ali giggled. “My theory is, like, most families have the odd one out as a gay kid, right? So Nat is the odd one out in our family, because she’s the only cishet.”

“Natasha Reagan, the only straight one. I pity her so much,” Virgil said, dramatically, as Ali laughed some more. “Freshman year and already out on your own in the Royal City? What if something bad happened to you?” 

“I’m fourteen! I can take care of myself!” Ali replied, crossing their arms over their chest. 

“I’m twenty-two and I can’t take care of myself, Al,” he countered, glancing around the room. “You come here often?”   


“I’m your sibling, not someone you’re trying to hook up with,” they said, groaning. “Anyways - holy goddamn  _ shit _ , is that who I think it is?”   


“Language!” Virgil snapped, hoping it wasn’t who  _ he _ thought it was. “Who do you think you see?”   


“Well, I think I’m imagining things, but that might be the prince in the baseball cap and sunglasses over there!” Ali gushed, grabbing Virgil’s arm. “Look! Do you remember when he was at that fro-yo shop years ago? I was only seven! D’you think he’d sign something for me?”   


“Ali, if that is the prince, I need you to stop trying to get his attention,” Virgil mumbled, getting out of Ali’s grasp and sinking down into his seat. “I don’t want to talk to him right now.”   


“You  _ know _ him?!” they yelled, getting the attention of not only Roman (Virgil was sure it was him now, what normal citizen wears sunglasses and a baseball cap indoors besides Remy) but the entire restaurant. Virgil knew his face was bright red, and all he wanted to do was sink into the floor and never return.

Roman spotted Virgil and Ali and walked briskly across the tiny restaurant, head down. Virgil was trying to become one with the chair as his sibling bounced up and down in their seat. “Virgil! V! Look who it is!” they exclaimed, barely hiding any excitement.

“Is this small bouncing child related to you, Virge?” Roman asked, sitting down in the third seat at the table, despite the fact that Virgil as trying to make it as clear as possible that that was a bad idea. 

“Virge? He called you  _ Virge _ ?! V, I think I’m gonna scream!” 

“Please don’t do that,” Virgil said, finally pushing himself back up into a sitting position. “Hey, Roman. How’s it going? Something up with Logan?”

“Uh, no, actually, I was just coming here to get lunch. But then I saw you and I figured I could ask you in person what I was going to text you later, so it’s fine. Is this your sibling?” Roman asked, gesturing to Ali.

“Yeah, this is Ali. They prefer neutral pronouns. Ali, Prince Arellano,” Virgil mumbled, hoping they wouldn’t freak out too much. “What did you need to talk to me about?”   
  


\---

 

Roman was a bit unnerved by Virgil’s sibling, if he was being honest. They were young, from what he could tell, and they looked absolutely nothing like Virgil at all. “You two are related?”   


“Not by blood,” Virgil responded. “We’re both adopted. So is our older sister, Natasha.”   


“Romanoff?” Roman joked, not anticipating Ali’s confused look. “Oh, come on, not a Marvel fan? Disappointing siblings, Virge.”   


Virgil laughed. “I know. Natasha is twenty-four. She lives in the country somewhere close to my moms.”   


“The country! Oh, I’d love to visit there someday. I’m afraid I don’t leave my house much.”   


He scoffed. “House? My apartment could fit in one of the balconies in the ballroom.”

“Well, maybe we’ll just have to get you something bigger one day,” Roman replied casually, studying his nails. He was oblivious to the confusion and shock on Virgil and Ali’s faces. Glancing up, he saw Virgil with his face in his hands and said defensively, “What? What did I imply there? I was simply insinuating…” He realized what that must have seemed like to Ali. “Oh. I’m sorry. Ali, we are not dating, nor do we have any plans for the future.” 

Virgil sighed. “Roman, focus, please. What did you need to talk to me about?”   


“I need you to come to the palace tonight. Logan’s out for the rest of the day and I love Remy and Joan, but they gang up on me constantly and I need backup,” Roman said, hoping he would say yes, and he wouldn’t have to be alone at the damn press conference. 

“Bold of you to assume I’d be your backup. Remy and Joan make good points,” Virgil chuckled. “I’ll be there.” 

Ali gasped. “Virgil, you’re going to the  _ palace _ ? Can I come? Please?”   


“I’ve already been to the palace, Al, and no, you can’t come. You need to get home. Did you tell anyone you stayed in the big city to hang out with your older brother?” he asked. “You can come someday, I’m sure,” Virgil reassured them. “Roman?”   


“Yes, of course. We’re connected via Logan and Patton -”   


“Patton?” Ali titled their head to the side. “Like, your best friend, Patton? The one who used to come over and bake cookies all the time?”   


“Yeah, he’s dating Roman’s assistant,” Virgil said, checking his phone. “Ali, are you supposed to be with Nat right now?”   


“Uh, maybe?” They smiled sheepishly, trying to look innocent. Roman laughed. It was fun to see Virgil being a protective older brother. He was good at it; it was clear Ali loved him and vice versa.

“Ali!” Virgil snapped. “Go back to Nat. Right now. I’ll see you later, okay?”   


They nodded. “Fine. Bye, Prince Arellano!” Ali got up and ran out the door, waving goodbye as they left. 

Roman laughed a little. “I like them. They’re nothing like you at all.”   


“They aren’t. But I love them. And Natasha loves them. We’d move heaven and earth for Ali.”   


“Isn’t that a line from  _ Coco _ ?”   


“....maybe. Anyways, why is it so important I come to the palace with you tonight?” Virgil asked, leaning back in his chair. 

“Remy and Joan are working with a police captain and they suggested a press conference to inform people of what’s  _ really _ going on. I need you to be there,” Roman insisted. “We’re friends, right? I want friends there with me. And I will make damn sure the press doesn’t misconstrue it, okay? I could tell it makes you uncomfortable if people think we’re dating.”   


“It doesn’t really bother me. I mean, I doubt I’ll ever have anyone to date, so it doesn’t matter to me much if people think we’re dating.” Virgil shrugged. “What, would it be embarrassing to be seen with the purple-haired commoner?”   


“I fucking love your hair. Honestly, I’d love to dye my hair if I could get away with it,” Roman said. 

“You can’t dye your hair?” Virgil looked at Roman with concern. “Aren’t you literally the boss of everyone and anything? Who’s telling you that you can’t?”   


“I think my mom is the one that implemented it. She decided that it would mess with my “proper” image too much,” Roman mumbled. 

“I’m sorry. Hey, I know that you’re twenty-three and your parents aren’t…. here, but why don’t we do a little rebelling before that press conference?” Virgil suggested. 

“What do you mean?” Roman asked, intrigued.    


“I think we start small. The hair salon I get my hair dyed at does it well and pretty cheap. What do you think about dying yours bright red to match that sash thingy you’re always wearing?” Virgil raised an eyebrow. “I’m not suggesting you go crazy. But come on, the red would look so nice. Everyone would  _ love _ it.”

Roman thought about it for a couple seconds. Wouldn’t it be be fun to be impulsive? Dye his hair and not really care what anyone thought? 

Three seconds to choose. Should he say yes or should he say no?

“You know what?” Roman grinned. “Let’s do it. I have time. It’s time I did something outside my parents’ plan for me.”   


“Even if it’s something as small as dying part of your hair a different color?”   


“Even if it’s just that,” Roman said. “Come on. Let’s do this.”   


“Are you willing to take your cap and glasses off when we’re there? People will do anything for you, Princey. I know there’s places in the back that are more secluded. We can be done quickly and it’ll be professional.” Virgil stood up and held out his hand. “My turn to show you around. The place is a few blocks away.”   


“I already said let’s do this, so let's get going, Virgil.” Roman stood up and took Virgil's hand. Virgil laughed. “Alright, alright, let's get going already. Impatient much, Princey?” 

“I think I only have a couple hours. Will I be done by then?”  Roman asked. “ I don't usually go to hair salons in the middle of the Royal City.”

“Well, then I guess you're just going to have to have a new experience today, Roman.”   Virgil dragged him out of the shop, Roman hoping that the shop owners wouldn't be too annoyed that they didn't buy any food while they were there. 

Virgil lead him through the streets of the Royal City occasionally going through a back way or dodging around a person he didn’t particularly want to interact with. After a few blocks in a couple intersections, Virgil and Roman arrived at the hair salon that Virgil had promised to take Roman to. “Here we are. Carla in the back will help you; she does all of their hair dye.” 

“Alright I'm starting to think this wasn't such a good idea,”  Roman said, wringing his hands together. “Somebody's bound to get mad at me.” 

“Roman. We  _ just _ got here. I have faith in you. I promise, it's just hair dye, nothing bad could possibly come out of this,” Virgil replied, rolling his eyes at Roman. 

“ You don't know that. Technically a billion different things could go wrong right now. You don't actually know the outcomes to everything. You’re not Doctor Strange,” Roman retorted, folding his arms across his chest. 

“Well, I do know that you're being an idiot right now. It's just hair dye. there's pretty much nothing that can go wrong. And besides, I think you're going to look awesome.” Virgil held open the door for him. “After you.”

 

\--- 

 

Logan drummed his fingers against the steering wheel of the car he borrowed from Roman’s extensive garage. At seven thirty on the dot, he was waiting outside Patton’s apartment, ready to pick his boyfriend up for their first official date. 

And  _ goddamnit _ Logan was trying so hard not to panic. What if he screwed something up? And he never really got to have a soulmate…

Whatever. Focus on that later. 

Patton walked out of the building and Logan was pretty sure his jaw literally dropped. He looked gorgeous. And handsome. And a million other good adjectives. Because once again, Patton had rendered Logan speechless. 

Logan unlocked the car doors as Patton walked up. Patton smiled brightly as he got in the car. “You look amazing, Logan!”   


“Uh, y-yeah, you too,” Logan stuttered. “Are you wearing makeup?”   


Patton furrowed his brow. “Uh, yeah, I am. Does that bother you?” His tone was cold. 

“No! Of course not, I think it looks great on you,” he reassured Patton, starting the car. “Alright, you ready?”   


“As I’ll ever be.”   


“Have faith, Patton.” Logan laughed. “I promise it’ll be great.”   


Patton beamed. “I’m so excited!”   


“I hope it lives up to your expectations,” Logan said. “I only spent my money on this, since I borrowed the car from Roman. Also, please don’t ruin the car. Roman will kill me, and I don’t want him to kill me before our second date.”   


“Aw, that’d be awful.” Patton giggled. “You already think there’s gonna be a second date?”   


“Well, I’m hoping so,” Logan mumbled. “I really like you.”   


“What was that?”   


“I really like you, Patton,” he said, clearer. 

“I really like you too, Logan. Now, seriously, can we go? I can’t wait!”   
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay, so about ali: 
> 
> \- come up with idea for sibling for virgil  
> \- mention it to friend on tumblr (@romanochez)   
> \- they fall in love with ali   
> \- spend three hours making headcanons about these characters that weren't even supposed to be major characters  
> \- and now they're super important sorry guys 
> 
> also i'm sorry patton and logan are really short they'll be super long next chapter


	8. i'm dying, die w me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> wow, uh,,,,,, sorry for the wait. hope this is worth it eek
> 
> it's been a hot minute dsklhfkj 
> 
> drinking mentioned throughout the end of virgil's pov, implied sexual content mentioned twice in virgil's pov and at the end. if you want to avoid it, i'd skip "are you drunk?" to "ooh, do you want to see some of the art i've drawn..." and anything from "Patton never realized how much he enjoyed kissing..." onward. fair warning

Virgil was really starting to wish he hadn’t told Roman he would come to the press conference.

He wanted to be supportive, sure, but being supportive is overrated when your friend invites you to the most boring event in the history of the world.

And _no_ , Virgil wasn’t being overdramatic, you try sitting in a room watching someone talk to other people you don’t know or care about, yelling at the the person who is trying their hardest to be polite, but is clearly about to lose it.

That’s school. He just described school.

Though, in his personal opinion at this moment, this was worse than school. Because at least at school, he could get on his phone and ignore the yelling people and the teacher. Virgil had tried to get on his phone at the very beginning after Roman was done addressing everyone, but Remy shot him a death glare and Virgil put it away, albeit reluctantly. He'd managed to compose a full tweet in the short breaks he had and sent it, hoping Remy and Roman would find it funny and not be mad.

 

 ** _Virgil Reagan_** _@3moch1ldofdarkn3ss_ **8:32 PM**

> goddamn, it was such an honor to be invited to **@PrinceArellanoOfficial** **@thejoanglebook** and **@rrrrremy2k18** ‘s big event tonight but i’m starting to question if the honor was worth it <

 

Oh well. At least Roman’s new hairdo looked damn good.

Virgil could still recall Remy and Joan’s faces when Roman entered the room they were using as a “prep room”. (Nobody had actually explained to Virgil anything that was going on, but Roman’s employees said nothing as he walked in with Roman, and they seemed more responsive to his hair than the fact that he'd dragged a friend along to this thing.)

Sitting on the platform next to Roman and the reporters was taking its toll on his attention span and he had wanted to scream out at least three times that Roman had already answered that, _idiot_ , but every time he mumbled it Remy giggled and shushed him quickly.

The good thing was that there was a party afterwards, and so Virgil could drink a little and kind of hang out with Roman.

Both of those were lies. 'A little' has many different meanings, and Virgil was tired, he was harboring a little bit of jealousy towards his best friend and his date, and he was feeling that feeling you get when your friend gets a partner and you’re like, “damn, can I have one?”, so his interactions with Roman were... strange.

After a drink or two, Virgil checked his phone to see a message notification from Patton and a tweet from Roman.

 

 **pat™ (Recieved at 10:42 PM):** hey, you’re always welcome at my place, you know that, but i would go home tonight virge. love you.

 

 **_Prince Roman Arellano_ ** _@PrinceArellanoOfficial_ **11** **:25 PM**

> I am happy to announce that the press conference was a success. However, **@3moch1ldofdarkn3ss** , please refrain from complaining about it, because you won’t be invited back, Virgil. <

 

Okay, he kind of deserved that. Vague-ing about the prince’s press conference on Twitter was probably a bad idea.

Virgil noticed Roman standing in the corner, hiding from the reporters and the like. He walked over, leaning against the wall next to him. “Roman, how’s it going?”

Roman sighed exasperatedly. “Are you drunk?”

“A little.” Virgil showed his phone to Roman. “Look at what Patton said him and Logan are doing.” He giggled. “I didn’t think Patton would ever go that far with anyone.”

Roman held out his cellphone too. “I know, Virgil.”

The screen read “I will not be returning to the palace tonight, things went well, if you catch my drift. Patton and I will be going back to his apartment.”

“What a Logan way to say “hey, my boyfriend and I are having sex, don’t wait up”,” Virgil remarked, which made Roman blush inexplicably. “Ooh, Roman, do you want to see some of the art I’ve drawn on my arm?

He nodded. Virgil brought his phone back to his face, flicking through his gallery, “Oh, Patton taught me some calligraphy, so I did some lyrics on my arm.”

Roman nodded and smiled tightly. Virgil could register some strange emotion - shock, maybe? - that was quickly overtaken by the aforementioned smile… or whatever.

Four pictures later, Virgil was almost certain Roman was getting annoyed with him. It was late, so Virgil figured he’d better go home to rest so he could listen to Patton ramble about his date - and he wanted to listen! He just didn’t want to be hungover when he did.

Getting home was a bit of a blur for Virgil. He couldn’t remember much of it.

One thing he remembered distinctly, however, was waking up at four am and wandering into the bathroom to… take some Advil or something, turning on the lights, and seeing a message on his forearm which began with the words _Note to Roman_.

Roman.

_Goddamnit._

 

\---

 

Roman brushed his bright red hair out of his eyes and sighed. He wasn't quite used to the red, but so far no one had yelled at him for it (aside from Remy's “oh my fucking god, Virgil, what did you do to him?”)  and it wasn't _all_ red.

He liked it.

Roman rubbed his eyes sleepily and headed to the ballroom to direct cleanup and whatever. He was still tired from the beginning of the night (it was around three or four am), but he needed to make sure everything was stored properly and such. He stumbled down the grand staircase, leaning against the banister to catch his balance. Almost immediately, Remy and another palace employee - Reed? Was that their name? - ran up to him, Remy laughing at Roman’s inability to stand straight up, and Reed - was it Reed or Reagan? No, no, Reagan was Virgil's last name. It had to be Reed - with a small smile on their face.

“My prince, are you hungover?” Remy asked, laughing even harder when Roman glared at him.

“No, I am not, I didn't drink at the afterparty and I didn't sleep in the thirty-minute break I had between that and cleanup,” Roman muttered. “And it wouldn't be any of your business if I was. I'm just really tired.”

Remy raised an eyebrow. “Up a little late having fun with that friend of yours?”

“I don't like what you're implying,” Roman said, rolling his eyes, “and _no_ , Virgil went home a little after the party because he needed to get home.”

“Alright. Well, Reed here says that Joan needs to know something Terrence said about the reporters' platform needing to be replaced cause something went wrong and Joan knows the guy that can fix it.”

Roman yawned and nodded. “Yeah, yeah, uh, tell Joan that Terry, or, uh, whoever said the… what needed to be replaced?”

Remy sighed. “Can I write it down on your arm or something? That won't register with your soulmate, right?”

Roman shook his head and held out his arm. “Only deliberate marks made by yourself with the intent to place ink on the skin and all that bullshit.”

Remy scribbled down a note. _Note to Roman, remember to tell Joan that Reed said that Terrence noticed a problem with the reporter platform_. “Alright, all taken care of. And I need to update your Instagram, Roman, so stop by my office soon, please?”

Roman yawned again. “Okay, okay. But seriously, can I just go to sleep? I can’t even think straight right now.”

“When can you ever?” Remy mumbled. “Alright. Just get that message to Joan first. He's probably down by the… something. Bye, RoRo!”

“Don't call me that!” Roman protested as Remy walked off, chattering away with the other employee. He turned and walked back up the grand staircase, figuring he'd see Joan quickly and go back to sleep immediately.

Roman knocked on Joan's office door, rubbing his eye sleepily with his free hand. “Yo, Joan!” he called, hoping they were in the room.

They opened the door. “Your Majesty? You look hungover.”

“Why does everyone keep saying that?” Roman grumbled. “I'm just tired. Here, Remy wanted me to tell you this.” He held up his arm and as he opened his mouth to start reciting Remy's note, Joan said, “Oh, when did we scrap the soulmate rule?”

Roman laughed. “We didn't. Remy wrote this down. Other people can't activate the link.”

Joan nodded slowly. “Yeah, they can. Any person with intent to mark the skin can.”

All the color drained from Roman’s face. “You mean - You mean - I just -,” he stuttered. “Fuck.”

“I'm so sorry, Roman. I don't - this is Remy's department,” they said. “I am confused as to how you didn't know the rules of the link.”

“Me too, Joan, me too. We need to find this person. And pray that they don't post something about. Call Remy. And a tech specialist. Or someone who knows how to track posts online posts for a specific thing,” Roman ordered.

Joan nodded and went to make the calls. Roman paced their office, mentally cursing himself for not thinking this through. He was fully awake now, shaken by his mistake.

“Roman!” Joan laughed, clicking off his last call. “Go wash your hand off, dumbass. If they hadn’t already seen it, then you’re just helping them out at this point.”

“Well, they probably aren’t up. What sane person is up at four am when they don’t have to be?”

_Virgil is._

“Shut the fuck up.”

“Roman, I didn’t say anything. Why did you tell me to shut up?” Joan asked, stifling a giggle.

Roman rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand. “I guess I’m not as awake as I thought.”

He ran through a million different possible scenarios in his head, and eventually, he snapped out of his thoughts and said, “Joan, I know who it is.”

Joan glanced up from his phone call. “How?”

“It’s Virgil. It has to be Virgil. I don’t know why the universe is like this, but it must be Virgil.” Roman mumbled the last part, annoyed with himself for not figuring this out earlier. “The pictures of flowers he’d drawn on his arms he showed me… I’d seen them before and I couldn’t remember where. I saw them on me, Joan. The messages from my soulmate.”

Joan snickered. “So the guy you very clearly have a crush on is your soulmate? Lucky, lucky you,” they said.

“I don’t have a crush on him!” Roman retorted. Joan gave him a look, their eyebrows raised in a fashion that clearly meant _yes, you do._

Roman thought back to a few previous conversations, including his first impression of Virgil.

 

_Roman covered his mouth. “Logan,” he whispered, “you didn’t tell me your boyfriend-soulmate-whatever’s friend was hot.”_

 

 _“It is. It’s my favorite place in the whole palace.” He thought for a second. “I haven’t even brought Logan up here. I don’t think he’d appreciate it as much as I think he should.”_ _  
_

_“The view of the city is beautiful,” Virgil said, propping the door open behind him so they wouldn’t get locked out._

_Roman sat down on the edge of the roof and patted the ground next to him. “Sit next to me.”_ _  
_

_Virgil sat down. Roman moved his hand slightly to the left so that it was just barely touching Virgil’s._

_And God knows how long they sat there for._

 

 _“And about the roof…”_ _  
_

_“I swear to god, if you try and turn this into something -”_ _  
_

_Logan put his hands up in defense, but gave a sly smile. “I won’t say anything! I just think it’s interesting that you took Virgil to the roof, which is somewhere you have told me on more than occasion is where your ideal date would be, at nighttime so you could see all the city lights.”_   


“Okay, maybe I like him a little,” Roman grumbled. “But I sincerely doubt he likes me.”

“He has to. He probably does, Roman.” Joan placed their hand on Roman’s shoulder.  “Come on. You…” They sighed. “I know that this was your decision. But you like Virgil. Just explore the idea of maybe having something a little bit more with him. After all -” Joan winked, “he wouldn’t make a terrible king.”

Roman sighed, feeling his heart flutter a bit (though that could be the fact that it was four in the morning and he wasn’t thinking properly) and smiled a little. “Maybe it’d be nice to have a little something more.”  


\---

 

Logan was proud of how he’d done on his first-ever real date.

Granted, they’d just gotten to the restaurant, and it was only about 7:45 PM, but you know. He’d made it those fifteen minutes without accidentally offending Patton, or saying the wrong thing, or something like that.

Dating was hard when you’ve only got one choice. You get no practice. No first crushes, no eighth grade dances, nothing to help you work out how to do this goddamn dating thing.

Logan really, really wants to know how to do this goddamn dating thing.

Because Patton is adorable. He really is. He’s one of the cutest people Logan has ever seen and his personality matches. He’s bubbly, but witty, and smart too. Patton is running his own shop at the age of twenty-two. It’s impressive. Patton himself is impressive.

And of all the people that he could have shared that special bond with… he got Logan.

So swear it on the Prince’s life, Logan is not going to screw this up.

Logan told the hostess of their reservation, and she nodded, and led them to their seats. Once they were seated, Patton grinned at Logan and said, “So, if this is supposed to be our first real date, are we pretending we don’t know each other?”

Logan laughed a bit. “No, but I truly don’t know that much about you, Patton.”

“Well, then you might wanna start off with some questions, Lo,” he replied, smiling at the waiter as he poured their water.

“Can I get you guys anything to drink?” their waiter, who really couldn’t have been much older than Logan and Patton themselves, asked.

Logan shook his head. “Water is fine.”

Patton titled his head to the side. “I don’t…” he started, trailing off. “Never mind. A glass of red wine, please.”

“ID?”

Patton held out his ID, and the waiter left with a “my name’s Noah, call me over if you need anything.” Patton smiled at Logan again, though it looked somewhat guilty. “Sorry. I didn’t have to -”

“Nonsense,” Logan interrupted. “I don’t drink. That’s the only reason why I stick with water. And money is certainly not my issue here.”

Patton relaxed a little. “Babysitting the prince pays quite a bit, huh?” he asked jokingly.

“Yeah, plus I don’t have to cover housing or anything. You’ll see just how much extra money I have to spend tonight,” Logan responded with a wink.

The other young man laughed. “Is that what you went to college for? You know, working for the prince.”

“No, I went to college for chemical engineering. Working for Roman paid for it. And when I graduated…” Logan shrugged. “I just never quit my job. I threaten to. Constantly. As a joke, of course, I won’t quit until I find another job, and… well, I’m not actively looking.”

Patton grinned. “That’s actually kind of cool, I think. Plus, you get to live in a palace, so…”

“I do, don’t I?” Logan said, laughing. “It’s great. What did you go to college for, Pat?”

“I - I didn’t,” Patton mumbled into his menu.

“Come again?”

“I didn’t go to college,” he said again, clearer this time. “I was too busy with the shop.”

“Oh. Well, that’s cool too! Patton, you are plenty smart enough, don’t worry. I don’t… I’m not one of those guys who’ll dismiss you because you didn’t go,” Logan reassured him. “I still…” He blushed against his will. “I still like you, don’t worry.”

Patton gave him a half-smile. “I mean, I needed enough skill to be able to run a business. I’ve never felt insanely insecure about not going to college. I never would have met Lainey or Talyn. And I love being the boss of my own thing. Even if I had a little boost…” he trailed off, lost in thought.  

“How’d you get that started up?” Logan wondered, then quickly backtracked, saying “I mean, you don’t have to answer. I was just curious.”

“I don’t mind. My, uh, my dad paid for it. He’s really… wealthy, I guess. Him and my mom both, though she didn’t deserve it. My dad was the kind of guy who paid waiters their rent in tips. Or gave people a hundred dollars because they helped him with his bags. My mom… was not. She wanted to spend her money on conversion therapy for me.” Patton laughed bitterly. “That’s how desperately screwed up my life is. The fact that my mother wanted to send me to conversion therapy isn’t even the worst thing that’s happened to me.”

“Patton, that’s…” Logan began, the rest of the sentence catching in his throat.

“Awful? Depressing? I’ve heard it all, Logan. And it is. But my dad - I love my dad. He took my mom out of my life, and he paid for Blackberries. And I’m grateful for it every day,” Patton said, smiling.

“I like your dad already. Will I get to meet him someday?” Logan asked, only half-joking.

Patton blinked a couple times, out of confusion, Logan assumed. “Of course. You’re my boyfriend, Logan. And you’re quite literally stuck with me for the rest of your life.”

Logan totally wasn’t bright red after that.

 

\---

 

Patton, strangely enough, wasn’t at all nervous or scared talking to Logan about his mom. His mom was a terrible person, that was for sure, and he’d gotten over her total absence from his teenage years. He had his dad and Virgil, and Virgil’s older sister, Natasha.

That sounds weird.

“Well, anyways,” Patton said, “did you like the makeup?”

“Yeah!” Logan responded, a little bit overenthusiastically. “It looks really good. Did you teach yourself how to do that?”

“No, uh… Virgil’s older sister taught me. She’s awesome at makeup. And I spent a hell of a lot of time at Virgil’s house, even when he wasn’t there. Though…” Patton chuckled. “Virgil was never one to go outside much. And Nat treated me like I was her own little brother, and I loved it. Being an only child gets lonely sometimes.” At this moment, the waiter set down their drinks and the two of them gave their orders, which I’m not writing because it’s three am, fuck you.

I mean, how did that get in there?

Patton took a sip of his wine and smiled softly at Logan. “Okay, what’s your family like? Any parents I need to beware of?”

Logan shook his head. “I mean, they left when I was a freshman in high school. The worst you’re going to have to deal with is my highly overprotective older sister.”

“Part of the bad parents club too, huh?” Patton laughed, despite the heavy feel to the conversation. “I don’t mind too much. I have my shop and Virgil, and now, I have you!” he exclaimed. “I like to stay positive if you hadn’t been able to tell. I think that life always seems worse when you always focus on the bad things that happen to you. And while I suppose some people can’t help being sad all the time, there’s a difference between sadness you feel due to a serotonin deficiency and sadness you feel because you chose to dwell on a bad memory for too long.” Patton took another sip of his drink. “So I believe that yeah, my life kinda sucks. But it also rocks. I have amazing friends and an awesome boyfriend. And it could be so much worse…” he said, resting his hand on the table and sighing. “It isn’t, though. I feel that I need to be grateful for that.” Patton suddenly realized that he’d just rambled on for a time that was probably far too long for Logan’s taste, and quickly added, “Sorry, I didn’t realize I’d said so much. I just get to talking, and then I have to get it all out, in case no one wants to hear the end of it if I stop talking… and I’m still talking. I’m sorry, Lo.”

Logan took the hand Patton had set down on the table in his. “Patton, never apologize for wanting to talk about something important to you. It’s endearing.”

Patton smiled and blushed as Logan held his hand. “Thanks, Logan. I mean it.”

“I know you do.”

The rest of their dinner passed by slightly uneventfully, though Patton did learn a few scattered facts about Logan (like that his favorite movie was Big Hero Six, and his favorite book was an Agatha Christie novel Patton hadn’t heard of ever, and that his favorite band was Fall Out Boy, strangely enough.)

Eventually, when they finished, Logan paid and dragged Patton outside, insisting the other young man cover his eyes as Logan led him around the city.

Patton knew his way around the city, though, and he knew they were on the riverwalk. No complaining, the riverwalk was super cool and when Logan let him look, Patton immediately wrapped the prince’s assistant in a hug, and without a second thought, kissed him hard. As he pulled away, Patton said, “This is… this is my favorite place in the city. How did you know?”

Logan winked. “Magic. Also, I asked Virgil.”

Patton took Logan’s hand in his and kissed him on the cheek. “Well, I love it. I think this spot on the riverwalk is super romantic. It’s relatively secluded, and you can see everything. I used to tell Virgil all the time that when I finally met you, I would drag you to this exact spot for every date.”

His boyfriend flushed bright red. “It is kind of romantic, isn’t it?”

They sat on the walk until around ten thirty, occasionally making conversation, but mostly just enjoying each other’s company.

And kissing.

Patton never realized how much he enjoyed kissing until he met Logan, of course, because he was destined to be with Logan from the beginning, so he hadn’t ever kissed someone until the night of the attack.

But he was sitting here with Logan, and it just felt so _right_ , if that makes any sense. 

It felt right enough that when Patton pulled back one last time, he found himself saying “Let’s go back to my place.”

Logan looked taken aback, but the shock quickly passed over his face and he nodded, responding with “Let me text Roman. Let him know I won’t be coming home.”

“Good idea,” Patton agreed. “I’ll tell Virgil to just go to his place tonight.”

Once they had finished texting their respective friends, Patton hailed a cab and they rode to Patton’s apartment, Patton unlocking the door and barely having time to shut it behind him before Logan pressed him up against his wall, kissing him forcefully. But before they went any further, Logan pulled away and asked, “Do you want to?”

“Yes.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> kill me, please
> 
> anyways i hope you enjoyed it!!! as always like, comment, and leave kudos!


	9. it's kind of angst but also i'm just really tired

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> i'm so tired. so fucking tired. take this. take it. 
> 
> i've just started listening to welcome to night vale and if logince isn't just cecilos in a trench coat -
> 
> also i stan cecilos

Roman’s mother had always told him that he’d find his princess someday. A beautiful woman who would rule alongside his as his queen, when he became king. 

Ah, just thinking about how much she would have hated Virgil made Roman laugh. 

She wasn’t homophobic, just heteronormative. If she’d been alive today, she would have been more annoyed by Virgil’s hair than the fact that he was… well, a he.

How do homophobic people exist in a society where you have no influence over who you love? Well, Roman has no fucking clue. Maybe for the same reason people dislike gay people today. Because they're different. It'd be much better if people treated it like they did those with no soulmates, and light years better if people just were normal about it, but no.

Anyways, it had been about a week and a half since the night of the press conference, and while Roman had started seeing quite a bit more of Patton around the castle, he hadn't seen Virgil since the incident. Joan was on his case about not telling Virgil that he and Roman were soulmates constantly, while Remy continued to argue the opposite point. 

Roman was sitting at his vanity, staring at himself in the mirror. Logan opened the door, setting some papers down on his desk. “Your Majesty, the files from Roxanne. She wants you to have the paperwork done by tomorrow.”   


“Thank you, Logan.” Roman spun around in his desk chair. “We’re friends, right?”

“No, I absolutely hate you,” Logan deadpanned, sitting down on Roman’s bed. “What seems to be the issue?”   


Roman scoffed. “How do you know there’s an issue?”   


His friend shrugged. “I don’t. But from your tone, and the hesitant question of “are we friends?” like, you needed reassurance of the fact, I could reason there was something going on here.”

“I - well - okay then,” Roman stuttered. “Well, so, I have to make you promise not to talk to anyone about this, besides Remy and Joan, since it’s Remy’s fault and Joan was the person that told me it was Remy’s fault.”   


“O-kay?” Logan responded, folding his arms across his lap. “Roman, what’s going on?”   


He sighed. “So I may have accidentally contacted my soulmate. On accident. Not on purpose.”   


“I got that part, Prince,” Logan said, laughing. “Did they respond?”   


Roman ran his fingers through his hair and smiled sheepishly. “It was at four in the morning. The night you and Patton… y’know. Remy wrote something down on my arm and I didn’t realize it would show up. Joan pointed it out to me, so I talked to them a bit about it. Remy refuses to budge on contacting him. Joan says I basically have to. I need a third opinion.”   


Logan stared at him. “Roman…”

“I know! I know it was idiotic, but I don’t know what to do, Logan! You found your soulmate, and you love Patton! He’s your boyfriend! How did you figure that out?” Roman asked, his voice getting more frantic by the second.

Logan put his hands up. “Calm down, Roman. Please, listen to me. I wasn’t sure about Patton at first.” He chuckled lightly. “Did I ever tell you I tried to pretend he wasn’t my soulmate on our first “date”?” Logan made air quotes at “date”. “It freaked Patton out. Cause he knew, and I knew, and I just needed to get over myself and admit that I’d found him. It scared me, but I knew that in the end, I needed to be ready. And besides, it’s Patton. I can’t think of a better match for me than someone who complements my personality like he does.”

Roman put his hand over his heart. “That is so sweet and completely unhelpful to my situation.”

Logan scoffed. “Okay then. Well, you said you knew who it was? How?”   


The prince averted his eyes. “You aren’t going to like it.”   


“How do you know that?” Logan asked, crossing his arms. “I don’t even know who it -”   


“It’s Virgil,” Roman interrupted. “Sorry, it’s like a band-aid. You just gotta get it over with.”

The other young man blinked a couple times, staring at Roman. “I’m sorry, who?”   


“I said -”

“It was rhetorical,” Logan said, somewhat exasperated. “I was just processing. Virgil? Like, Patton’s best friend Virgil? Like the one who truly believes that he has no one, no soulmate waiting for him at the end of the day, nobody to read the messages he writes on his arms? You are the person who refuses to write back?”   


“Well, when you say it like that, you make me sound like an asshole!” Roman replied, stung by Logan’s reprimand. 

“That’s because you are an asshole! About this, at the very least!” Logan sighed. “Roman, I think you have to tell him. You owe him that much.”   


Roman closed his eyes and spun his chair back around to face the mirror, opening them to look at his stress-ridden face. “I’m scared, Logan.”   


His friend stood up and kneeled next to Roman, causing the other to spin to face him. “Hey, I know that. I’ve been here for fourteen years. I know that this was important to you.” He bit his lip. “I’ve never been great at feelings. But I can deal with things like facts. You wanted independence, right? That was a fact. Your parents wanted you to get married. And when they died, you got to make that choice. You chose to be independent for as long as you wanted.

“But Roman, we all know you like Virgil. Your first comment about him to me was that you believed he was attractive, correct?” Roman nodded. “Alright. So would it be so terrible to be able to tell him that to his face?”   


Roman laughed. “No, it wouldn’t. But what if he hates me? Because he’s been thinking that he doesn’t have a soulmate for his whole life, and then I’m like, “hey, guess what, it’s me”? What if he says no because he doesn’t want to be king?”   


“Well, then you’ll be respectful of his decision. But I don’t think he’ll say no, Roman,” Logan reassured him. “I’ve gotta go now, alright?” 

He stood up and walked half of the way to the door before Roman called, “Hey, Logan?”, causing him to turn around.

“Yes, Your Majesty?”

Roman got up and hugged Logan. “Thank you. I love you, Logan.”   


Roman felt Logan relax and hug him back. “You too, Yo - Roman. I love you too, Roman.”

 

\---

 

Logan shut his bedroom door, making his way to his desk in the corner. His fingers brushed a photo on his bedside table, causing him to stop and glance at the photo. 

He picked it up, smiling softly at the memory. It was a picture of a nine-year-old Logan clutching a puppy. Illogical as it was, Logan had a very clear memory of the day that picture was taken. The puppy in question was his childhood dog, Sumo, and the photo was taken by his mother. It was one of the very few good memories he had of her. 

He set the picture down, not wanting to go down that rabbit hole of his childhood right now.

He’d told Patton his parents had run away when he was a freshman in high school, but it was so much more than that. 

It was that they took his childhood with them, left his high school years to be one of advanced maturity, of “Logan is so smart, but he’s so quiet”, of few friends and fewer happy moments. 

It was that he knew, he knew it was coming, he could tell, and he did nothing. He had a little bit of hope that they would choose to stay, or that they would choose to take him too. 

It was that the night before they left, his mom hugged him and said, “Thank you. I love you, Logan.” and Logan didn’t know why. 

Laura - his older sister - had said the phrase to him a couple times, and eventually he’d broken down and told her that it made him want to cry every time she said it. 

Laura was legally eighteen when they left, so she decided to stay and be her brother’s guardian, letting Logan finish his high school years before she moved away and started her life over somewhere else, with no little brothers and broken homes holding her back. 

And when Logan turned eighteen, he applied for every scholarship, saved every dollar, the first to go to college in his family. But they’d never know. 

Which is when he found out about Roman. 

Sending in a resume to work for the prince was a long shot, and he mostly did it as a side job, but he never expected for it to be his way into his dream college, and for him to meet the wonderful people there, and for him to bond with Roman. 

He almost forgets about his family sometimes. 

Logan walked over from his desk and picked up the picture of him and Sumo again, sitting down on his bed with it. Logan wasn’t entirely sure why he felt like crying, but he hugged the picture tight and laid down. It was clear he wasn’t getting any work done today. 

There were more pictures of him and the dog on his phone, one of him picking up the dog as an eighteen-year-old, the pet nearly as big as Logan himself, but the one that he framed was the special one. 

Logan put a hand on his face, covering his eyes as he tried to keep himself from crying over a stupid memory. It was illogical. Emotional. Logan was neither of those. 

Inconsiderate as it may seem, the tears refused to cooperate and go back, and Logan turned over, burying his face into the pillows on his bed. 

 

\---

 

Patton moved out of Lainey’s way, checking the cappuccino machine Talyn lamented wasn’t working, declaring “Talyn’s going insane guys, it’s working just fine!”, which earned him a glare from the employee.

Lainey laughed. “Here, Virgil just showed up, boss. I’ll deal with Talyn, since I can’t remember the last time Virgil came here by his own volition.”

“Well, he was supposed to come here and check up on the shop a week ago, but he never did,” Patton grumbled. “I’m still a little mad about that.”   


Talyn stared at him. “Patton? Mad at Virgil?”   


Lainey faked a gasp. “His best friend Virgil?”   


“Lovely Virgil?”   


“Best person in the world Virgil?”

“Alright, alright, I get it!” Patton giggled, swatting the two with a dish towel. “I’ll be right back.” 

Patton made his way to where his best friend was standing somewhat awkwardly and leaned across the counter. “Virge! What’s up, kiddo?”

“Uh, I just was walking past the shop and I wanted to let you know that I’m going to the castle to chill with Roman, if there’s anything you needed me to take to Logan?” he offered, burying his hands in his hoodie pockets.

“If you see him, tell him hi, but nothing specific.” Patton propped his head up on his hands. “Why’re you headed to the palace, kiddo?”   


“Because Roman needs to talk to me, or some shit. He was being cryptic about it, so my anxiety car alarm is at full alert right now, and it’s stressing me out.” Virgil shoved his hands even deeper in his pockets.

“Don’t do that, you’re stretching out your hoodie. And don’t you worry about it, Virge, the prince is your friend! He probably just wants to invite you to something, or help him out with something there,” Patton reassured him.

Virgil relaxed a bit. “You’re right. You’re right. It’s gonna be a normal visit about normal things. Bye, Pat.” He took his hands of out his hoodie pockets and waved. “Love you, buddy.”   


“Aww, I love you too!” Patton cooed, waving at his best friend as he left. Lainey appeared behind him, grabbing the dish towel from his hands and running to the back area, chasing her fellow employee and laughing. Patton ran after her too, trying to get her to stop chasing Talyn, who had switched Lainey’s name tag out for their own just to see how confused Laines would get when a customer accidentally called her the wrong name.    


Once they stopped and Patton had successfully gotten the weapon away from Lainey and reprimanded them (though he was laughing the whole time), he sent Talyn and Lainey back out front and told them to send Valerie or Terrence into the back to help him with the various baked goods. 

Patton would probably die without his little cafe on Graham. It was the perfect stress reliever, and it was fun to hang out with his employees, most of which he was younger than, which was a strange experience, but they all respected his authority, thanks to… some reason Patton wasn’t completely sure of. 

Apparently, they had chosen to send Valerie back, as the young woman took a tray from him and made her way back out front to stock the display. 

An hour or so later, Patton leaned against one of the counters in the back, giggling at a semi-recent post from Logan’s side Instagram about living at the palace, a picture of Joan running off with a pair of sunglasses with a blur chasing him that Patton assumed to be Remy. The caption made it even better, in Patton’s opinion, reading:   
  


**@talesfromthearellanopalace:** I have complete faith in both Remy and Joan. They are some of the best and hardest working members on His Majesty’s staff. Also, they’re idiots and I can’t believe we’re friends. Picture credits to me, but the prince told me to take it, so he wants partial credit.

 

“Boss? Your boyfriend text you?” Lainey asked, returning the tray to the stack to be washed. 

Patton blushed. “Uh, no, just looking at Instagram.”   


“Uh huh,” she said, suspicion edging her tone. “Okay, well, I think you’re welcome to go -”   


“Lainey!” Talyn called.

“Yeah?” she responded, mouthing  _ one second _ to her boss. 

“Is Pat back there?”

“Yeah, I am,” Patton replied. “What’s up, Talyn?”   


“Logan’s here! It looks like today is Visit Patton’s Coffee Shop Day,” they yelled, possibly disrupting their customer’s experience. 

Patton headed out to the shop counter, giving his boyfriend a quick peck on the cheek over the counter. “What are you doing here? I thought you didn’t want to take today off!”   


Logan rubbed at his eye, and it was then that Patton noticed they were a little puffy, as if he had been crying. “I just wanted to come see you, I guess. Roman didn’t mind, and Joan and Remy are too busy fighting to notice what I’m doing nowadays.”

Patton titled his head to the side. “What’s going on with them? They’ve always seemed like good friends,” he said.

Logan sighed. “It’s over something stupid, too. They shouldn’t even be worried about it.”

Talyn tapped Patton on the shoulder, getting their boss’s attention. “Hey, Pat, you’re good for the day. Terrence and Val and Laines and I can take it from here. Go on a walk with Logan or something.”

Logan smiled. “That sounds like a fantastic idea,” he said to them, nodding at Patton to join him.   


Patton took off his apron and hung it behind the counter on his hook, then opened the door from behind the counter and walked out, grabbing Logan’s hand. “Let’s go, then.”

 

\---

 

Virgil stared at the door to the castle, not sure whether to knock or if it wasn’t locked, and let himself in. It seemed more likely that he needed to knock, but what if Roman had told him what to and he’d forgotten? What if - 

Thankfully, he was saved the embarrassment of doing the wrong one by Logan opening the main door from the inside. 

“Ah, Virgil, Roman told me you might be stopping by,” Logan said, holding the door open for him. “I was just on my way out. I hope you haven’t been waiting here for too long.”

“I, uh, I haven’t, don’t worry. Where’s Roman?” Virgil asked, as Joan ran up to Logan, breathing hard. 

“Logan! Can you take Remy’s glasses? He’s about to catch up to me.” Joan turned his attention to Virgil. “Hey, man! Nice to see you again. I think Logan’s leaving, wanna help me fuck with Remy?”

Virgil weighed his options. “Uh, of course. See you around, Logan!” he called, running off with Joan. 

He saw Logan sigh and wave out of the corner of his eye. “Okay, Joan, what’re we doing here?”   


“Uh, I stole his sunglasses. So we’re running,” Joan answered, ducking around a corner. “What’s up with you? We haven’t seen you around here in a while.”   


Virgil shrugged, glancing around for his old friend. “I’ve just been busy. Roman told me he wanted me to come over today, though.”

Joan nodded knowingly. “Did he tell you why?”   


“No,” Virgil said, motioning for him and Joan to move from their corner. “Do you know?”

“I do. But I won’t say anything. It’s Roman’s thing, he needs to tell you.” Joan turned around and nearly ran into Remy, who had snuck up on the two of them. 

Virgil waved at him awkwardly. “Hey, Remy! I had no part in this whatsoever.”   


Remy glared at the two of them. “Joan, give me my sunglasses.”   


They shoved the sunglasses into Virgil’s arms. “Run for it, Virgil!” Virgil sprinted into the open ballroom, laughing as the semi-furious employee chased behind him. 

“What the  _ hell _ is going on here?!” Roman shouted from one of the balconies, causing Virgil, Remy, and Joan to freeze. 

“My prince,” Remy said, bowing mockingly to his friend.

“Alright, alright, shut up. Just stop chasing each other around the ballroom, Roxanne will have you all executed,” Roman chided, leaning against the railing. “Virgil, I’d like to talk to you in my room, please? Come with me.” Virgil tossed the sunglasses back to Joan, leaving to go up the stairs and join Roman.

Virgil followed his friend back through the palace to the prince’s suite. “What is it you needed to talk to me about, Roman?”

Roman rubbed the back of his head. “I don’t really know how to say this.” 

Virgil tilted his head to the side. “Come again?”

“Here, uh, this is going to be the best way to do this,” the young man said. Roman picked up a pen and wrote “hi” on his right hand. 

“I know, Roman,” Virgil said, holding up his right hand and sighing. “I knew.”

“You - sorry, you  _ what _ ?!” Roman exclaimed. 

“Oh, don’t play the victim here, Roman,” Virgil snapped. “For all of my life, I thought that I had nobody and it’s you? It’s fucking you?”   


Roman blinked a couple times. “I’m not that bad.”   


“Shut up. Just - shut up. You knew - I saw the thing Remy wrote on you hand the night it happened.” He paced the room. “I can’t believe you wouldn’t tell me!”

 

“Why would I?” Roman asked, crossing his arms. 

“Because you knew about how I thought I didn’t have one and you were my soulmate! You knew that! And you didn’t tell me!” Virgil sat down on his bed. “I don’t know what to do, Roman. That hurts. It feels like you didn’t want it to be me.”   


“But I did! I -”

Sirens rang out around the palace. Roman and Virgil shared a look, mentally noting to finish this conversation later.

_ Did you miss me? _

 

\---

 

Thomas put his hand on the wall. “I know where we are. This is part of the castle!”

_ It isn’t. _

“My handprints are in the system, I can just unlock it from the inside,” he said, confidently.

_ That is correct.  _

He placed his hand on the wall in the spot he knew the print recognition sensor was, the wall flashing “denied” at him.

“What? That doesn’t make any…” he trailed off, thinking. “How long was I asleep?”

_ A year - I mean, not a year. _

“I’ve been asleep for a year? What about my job? And Joan? Prince Roman, Logan, Patton and Virgil? Do they…” Thomas covered his mouth. “Do they think I’m dead?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i hope someone liked this. i'm tired. 
> 
> as always like comment and subscribe
> 
> i used to say that ironically i didn't know you could actually subscribe on ao3


	10. BAM action

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> uhhh deceit tw. he's back and he's dressin fabulously my dudes. skip roman and virgil if u aren't down to read nonsympathetic dee or dee at all. 
> 
> why is this so dialogue heavy. why. why am i like this -
> 
> enjoy!

Logan and Patton made their way through the city, wandering around the numbered streets as they chatted aimlessly about anything that popped into their heads. Eventually Patton brought up the thing that Logan was really hoping he wouldn’t, and…

“Logan, were you crying before you got to the shop today?” Patton asked. “I don’t mean to press, I just want to know if you’re okay.”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I was simply thinking of some things I did not wish to be thinking about,” he said, slipping his hand into Patton’s. 

“But you were crying?” Patton blushed as Logan took his hand, his cheeks turning adorably pink, something Logan would never get over just how cute it was. “Logan -”

“It’s okay, love. It’s uncharacteristic for me, but I didn’t have the greatest of childhoods and I was reliving a few memories I did not enjoy, due to something Roman said. It wasn’t Roman’s fault, though,” Logan assured him. “It was just a sentence I didn’t enjoy hearing.”

Patton relaxed a little bit. “Is Roman okay? I know he invited Virgil over pretty suddenly.”

“Yeah, Roman’s fine. Or, he was the last time I talked to him,” Logan said. “I’m not really sure what he wanted to talk to Virgil about.” 

The lie felt uncomfortable saying aloud, but Logan figured that Roman wouldn’t want more people to know than the people that already did. It took a lot for Roman to talk to Logan about his soulmate, and Logan wouldn’t go around telling more people, even if said person was averse to lying (to an extent, even Patton had exceptions for serial killers) and already friends with Virgil… 

Damn it, now he was questioning it. 

“Patton, if you knew something important about a friend’s friends, but one of them probably didn’t want you to say anything about it, would you tell the first friend?” Logan asked. “This is a completely hypothetical inquiry, just so you know.”

“Uh huh,” Patton said, voice laced with sarcastic disbelief. “And in this completely hypothetical, one-hundred percent not real, totally isn’t happening situation, how bad is the thing that’s -”

“Patton? Oh my god, Nat, it’s Patton!” a voice interrupted, causing Logan to blink several times in confusion. 

Patton beamed at the two figures approaching him and Logan, first turning to his boyfriend and saying “This conversation continues later, okay?”

Logan, still far too confused for his liking, was dragged by Patton to catch up to the two people facing them, who Logan’s boyfriend immediately threw his arms around, saying “How are you?” and “It’s so nice to see you!” as Logan himself stood awkwardly in the background. 

Patton glanced at Logan and laughed, backing up to stand next to him. “Where are my manners? Natasha, Ali, this is Logan, he’s my -”

The shorter of the two gasped. “You’re Patton’s boyfriend! The one that works for the prince!” they exclaimed, bouncing excitedly as the taller of the two put a hand on their shoulder to calm them down. 

“Hi, Logan. I’m Natasha, it’s very nice to meet you.” They held out their hand. “Oh, and she and her for me. They and them for Ali.” 

Logan nodded and shook the young woman’s hand. “Pleased to make your acquaintance as well. How do you know Patton?” he asked, taking a mental note of the personality of the younger and how much it reflected his own boyfriend’s, strangely enough. 

“Well, we practically grew up with him,” Natasha joked. “We’re -”

“We’re Virgil’s siblings!” Ali blurted, interrupting the elder’s explanation. “I got to meet the prince once. He’s super nice, and Vee says they’re friends. Are you friends with Prince Arellano, Pat?”

Patton laughed. “We’re friends, sure. I see him at the palace when I’m up visiting Logan here.”

They covered their mouth in shock. “Logan, do you live at the palace?” Ali asked, seemingly in a full-on, uh… fan-person mode.

“I - yes, I do. Roman requires my assistance often, it’s helpful for me to be on call,” he explained. “I typically spend most of my time in the commons, so I don’t see him all the time. I spend some time with a few of his employees too.”

“Does he have any nonbinary employees?” Their tone was quite shy, and Logan smiled a bit. 

“Roman does, in fact. One of his most trusted coordinators is nonbinary. Their name is Joan, and they won’t tell you this in anything about the palace, but nothing would get done without them,” Logan said. “It’s nice to see someone like you doing something cool, isn’t it?”

Ali beamed and Natasha mouthed a “thank you” to Logan. 

Logan’s boyfriend grinned. “Are you guys headed somewhere? If so, we don’t want to hold you for too long,” Patton remarked, taking Logan’s hand back in his. 

“We should really be on our way,” Natasha agreed. “Logan, it’s nice to meet you. I assume we’ll see you again someday, since Patton has a standing invitation to dinner at my moms’ house, and mine as well. I love my little brother, but sometimes having Patton’s sunshine to balance Virgil’s stormcloud is nice.”

Logan nodded, both in agreement and in approval. “Poetic.”

Natasha winked. “Stole that line from one of my moms,” she confessed, making Logan laugh a little bit. Patton’s bright smile only grew as he watched his boyfriend and his pseudo-older sister interact. 

Ali waved goodbye as their sister and them walked off, leaving a smiling Patton and a still slightly taken aback Logan standing on the corner.

 

\---

 

Patton shook his head. “You’re really good with kids, you know?” he said, playfully bumping Logan’s shoulder. 

Logan turned red at the physical contact. “Well, I wanted to be a chemistry teacher for quite a bit of my life. It’s a little late to do that now, but…” he trailed off, leaving the rest of the unfinished sentence to Patton. 

He sighed. “Well, I just want you to be happy. And I don’t think it’s too late to do what you want in life,” Patton comforted him. “Okay, well, about what we were talking about before Natasha and Ali showed up, how bad is the thing you think you shouldn’t tell the first friend?” he asked, steering the conversation back to the original topic as they began walking once again.

“Oh!” Logan startled. “Right, I forgot we were talking about that. Well...”  he scratched the back of his head in thought. “It isn’t bad. It could be very beneficial.”

Patton raised an eyebrow at his boyfriend. “How will it make all three people  _ feel _ , Logan?”

He shrugged. “I have no idea. I imagine it could possible make all three rather happy, but I believe the second friend has some reservations about the third, and it may go somewhat poorly,” he continued, thinking aloud. “And of course, the first friend is much closer to the second friend than the third, so if it does go badly, that could cause a rift between the third and first friends.”

Patton rolled his eyes jokingly, interrupting his boyfriend’s thoughts with a laugh. “This is about Roman and Virgil and I, isn’t it?”

Logan looked at him, taken slightly aback.”How did you guess that?” he asked, which prompted another laugh from Patton.

“Your “completely hypothetical situation”_-” he did air quotes around that - “was very specific about the friends and the other details. And it came right on the heels of me asking about Virgil, which was a little weird for something you had just thought of.”

The other young man laughed as well, though a bit sheepishly. “Sorry, Patton,” he apologized. 

“I don’t know what you’re sorry for,” Patton said, “You did what you thought was best to protect your friend’s maybe-secret.”

“I guess…” Logan smiled at Patton and adjusted his glasses with his free hand. “Well, I suppose there’s no harm in telling you after all. Virgil is Roman’s soulmate, and -”

Patton gasped. “Wait, really? Oh. My. God. That’s awesome!” he blurted out, interrupting Logan. And it really was awesome, since it meant that he wouldn’t have to leave Virgil behind if he ever moved to the palace. “Logan, Virgil could be a prince!”

“I know that, babe,” Logan said, trying to calm Patton down a bit by the placating tone in his voice. “It would be kind of interesting to see Virgil in that position. But I don’t even know if Virgil likes him back.”

The shorter of the two giggled. “Are you kidding? Virgil thinks he’s cute. Virgil has thought he was cute since he saw him once when he was fifteen.”

Logan tilted his head to the side. “Virgil met Roman once when he was fifteen?” he questioned, probably unsure if Patton was telling the truth, if he had to guess.

Patton nodded vigorously. “He told me the story once. Just for a bit, but they were in the same frozen yogurt shop for a little while and Roman said hi,” he recounted. “I always thought the story was kind of silly, but fifteen-year-old Virgil was a gay mess.”

“Aren’t we all gay messes at fifteen?” Logan joked. “Seriously, I figured out that I liked boys when I was fourteen, so all of my freshman year was just trying to figure who in the school would support me.”

“Ah, well, at least we have the benefit of never truly knowing what gender our soulmate will be, so we won’t get made fun of in high school,” Patton said. He kissed his boyfriend on the cheek. “We should go back. We’ve made it almost to the river line.”

Logan glanced at the street sign and nodded. “Do you have to go back to work, or…?” he prompted Patton to finish the sentence, to which the shop owner simply chuckled and shook his head. 

All of a sudden, Logan’s phone rang. He let go of Patton’s hand, mumbling a “sorry, I have to get this,” before answering it promptly. “Hello, this is Logan Sinclair.”

Patton watched as Logan’s face went from calm to shocked to angry back to pure shock in a few seconds. “Are you - is he okay? Virgil is with him too, make sure Roman knows there is a civilian with him… yes, I know. Is it the same guy?”

“Logan, what’s going on?” Patton asked, anxiety edging his voice. 

He hung up the phone call and turned to the short of the two, false calm painted over a shaken face. “The palace is under attack.”

 

\---

 

Virgil bit his lip and pushed the fight to the side. “Deceit, leave us alone.”

_ Sure. I will definitely do that,  _ his voice echoed, sinister as always. 

“Roman, all he does is lie. Everything he says, it’s not true. It’s the reverse,” Virgil cautioned. “I have a feeling some of your security didn’t know that.”

“Virgil - Virgil, please, people  _ died _ . They were murdered. I can’t - we have to get -” Roman’s sentences were short and panicky, and his hands were gesturing wildly as an accompaniment to his words. 

_ Oh, do you guys remember Thomas? _

He clenched his fist. “Deceit, get  _ out _ .”

_ Well, you are just so much fun. Virgil, you want Thomas back? I thought it was about time we met in person anyways… _

Virgil’s stomach flipped. “I don’t want to negotiate with you. How are you even talking to me?” he asked, nervousness edging his voice as it would.

_ I’m definitely not using the intercom system with a few filters on it.  _

Roman placed a hand on Virgil’s shoulder. “Virgil, you can’t go talk to him. That’s insane!” he tried to reason.  “I won’t let you.”

“Roman…” Virgil shook his head. “I’m still mad at you, you know. The attack changes nothing.” He sighed. “You need to get to a safe room. This country needs its prince.”

The prince blinked twice and turned to Virgil, hand still on his shoulder. “This country needs its prince to keep them safe. This is my fault, Virgil.”

Virgil pulled away from Roman. “I will not let you come down there with me. I don’t even want to go down there.”

_ You don’t? _ came Deceit’s voice.  _ Well…  _ There was a snapping noise and then Roman’s room went dark. 

“Then I guess I’ll have to come to you,” he said, laughing. The voice didn’t sound quite human, as if there were still filters on it. 

The lights flickered back on, revealing the form of - 

“You,” Roman snapped.

“Deceit, what do you want?” Virgil asked bitterly. “I already sat and watched as you disappeared with one of my best friend and left the other in ruins.” 

The Disney villain studied his fingernails, which were very meticulously done. Roman was probably impressed. “Well, I suppose I want something. I don’t just want to descend your castle to chaos,” he said, faking innocence. 

“I hate the lies,” Roman complained. “It hurts my brain.”

“You - never mind,” Virgil grumbled. “You want to traumatize people?  _ Why? _ ”

“Why not, dear?” Deceit laughed. “I absolutely hate the name Deceit, by the way. Totally doesn’t make me seem like a supervillain.”

“Don’t call me dear. I am not someone for you to mess with, you dick,” he said, voice tight. “Do you get off on making us miserable? You killed part of Roman’s staff, and you have the whole palace on edge. You murdered my best friend,” he finished, gritting his teeth as he spoke in a heated crescendo. 

Deceit cocked his head. “I most definitely did that last one.”

Roman leaned towards Virgil. “But Thomas isn’t dead?” he said, confused. Virgil rolled his eyes. 

“That’s the point, Roman,” he said. 

Deceit tapped his boot-clad foot against the plush carpet of Roman’s room. “You two are getting boring. I’m out of here,” he said, the lights flashing off again as he disappeared. 

Roman pressed his hand to the wall. “Attention. This is Prince Roman. Go to the nearest safe room, security or otherwise. This is a direct order. You may not overrule me.” He sighed, and turned his attention back to Virgil. “Come on.”

“What the fuck do you think we’re doing?” Virgil asked, the only idea he had so stupid he couldn’t believe Roman would think that.

“I think we’re going after Deceit.”

 

\---

 

Roman grinned as Virgil shook his head vigorously. “No. No. You’re a fucking idiot,” Virgil said. “I’m not - you think we should go after him?”

“We don’t have too many other options,” Roman reminded him. “It’ll be fun.”

“He’s a kidnapper and a liar. How would getting close to him on purpose be  _ fun _ ?” he inquired sarcastically. 

The prince shrugged. “It may not be fun, per say, but we are smart and we have a reason. Don’t you want to know where Thomas is?”

Virgil sighed. “Yeah, but like, even thinking about having to face Deceit again gives me anxiety, Roman. Why would we go after him?”

“Why not?” Roman responded, looking at him with raised eyebrows. “I mean, pros, we find him, we maybe get him arrested, we stop him from terrorizing my country, and the only con is -”

“The only con is that it’s fucking Deceit, Roman!” Virgil interrupted. “Man, you would make a terrible boyfriend.”

“Low,” Roman mumbled. “That’s low.”

“It is not low, I’m still pissed at you. Which is why I say we stay here like rational people,” Virgil concluded, flopping down on the prince’s bed. He sat up, seemingly having an idea. “Or, better yet, we go to that safe room thing like we did the first time.”

Roman groaned. “No, my advisor will have my head on a platter if I bring civilians in there again, she made sure I knew that,” he said, causing Virgil to squint at him in confusion.

“Shouldn’t she want us to be safe?” he asked, laying back down on the bed. 

“One would think - hey, you distracted me. That’s not fair.” Roman pouted. “Come on, I think you need to take a bit of your anger out on Deceit. God knows he deserves it.”

“I know that, Roman, but -” Virgil was cut off by Deceit’s voice via the intercom once again.

_ Virgil, I didn’t forget to mention, I totally didn’t bring an old friend with me. Thomas, say hello? _

Virgil turned himself towards Roman, standing up. “Alright, fuck this. Let’s go kick his ass.”

Roman pumped his fist in the air. “Yes!” he exclaimed, earning him a disapproving glance from the other. 

They made their way through the castle, trying to trace the voice to the intercom it was coming from. It seemed to be coming from the main room, where just barely earlier Roman had caught Virgil running around with Remy and Joan…

Where were those two? He hoped they were okay. Roman didn’t want any more lives lost unless it was his own. 

He watched Virgil as they crept along the balcony, thinking that he looked determined, and very, very hot in the light cast aside from the chandeliers. 

This was not the proper time to be thinking that. Virgil wa mad at him, and they were in pursuit of Deceit, trying to keep everything quiet. 

But if Roman died combating Deceit or saving Virgil, he wasn’t dying in vain. 

“Roman,” Virgil whispered, tilting his head towards a balcony where Deceit was having a heated argument with another figure. 

“Thomas?” Roman mouthed, and Virgil shrugged. He didn’t know. 

_ Your Majesty, Virgil, please. I’m not making this easy on you. _

Roman rolled his eyes. He walked stealthily around the balcony encircling the ballroom, trying to get close to Deceit without him noticing. This endeavor was fairly easy, since the ballroom was dimly lit. 

Virgil, who was once leading, now fell behind Roman, trying to determine whether the other person next to Deceit was Thomas or not. Without any warning, the lights turned on all at once, giving away Roman and Virgil’s position near the two people. 

“You never came,” Deceit said, in that voice that wasn’t quite human and the lies that were so fucking confused to Roman. “I don’t have Thomas here for you.”

Roman edged closer to him. “What do you want?”

“I have no intentions to negotiate.”

Virgil cursed under his breath, far too calm for this situation, given his anxiety. “You just said all you wanted was chaos.”

“I may not have changed my mind,” Deceit said, prompting a loud groan from Virgil.

“Who’s with you? Is that Thomas?” he asked, Roman glancing back and forth between them.

“Yes. Virgil, it’s me, I’m fine, I’m just confused,” the other figure confirmed. “But -”

“But you’re almost always confused,” Virgil finished. “What did he do to you?”

“Nothing bad, he just -” Thomas began, only to be interrupted by an annoyed hissing from Deceit. 

“Shut up, they need to know that,” he reprimanded Thomas. “Well? Who wants to bargain?”

Virgil stepped in front of Roman. “Me. He’s my best friend.”

“Wait,” Roman said, stepping up next to him. Virgil turned towards him, most likely wondering what could be important enough that it had to be said right now. “I have something to give you. For good luck.”

Virgil rolled his eyes. “And that is?” he asked, annoyed and anxious to get his dealing with Deceit over with. 

“This,” Roman responded, putting his hand behind Virgil’s face and pulling him closer, locking their lips together in a short but fierce kiss. Virgil kissed back briefly, a bit stunned, before pulling back quickly as Thomas let out a slight cheer in the background. 

“You - I - we are talking about this later!” the purple-haired young man said, face flushed red. 

Roman smiled despite the situation. “Alright.”

Deceit stared at the two blankly. “Let’s get on with it, then?”

Virgil rolled up his sleeves. “Let’s.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> me, yelling into the void: IS IT GOOD
> 
> the void:
> 
> me: OKAY THANKS
> 
> tumblr is adultmorelikeadolt, like, comment, and subscribeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
> 
> also leave kudos


	11. oh god i need to sleep

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> fdsahkjdlkjkshakjdlfjhsa
> 
> i'm not dead
> 
> hey 
> 
> i'm back in school tho so expect those Hella Sporadic Updates hvdfsjalkdjfkhsa
> 
> this is short too im sorry

Patton steadied himself against Logan. “You’re kidding, right? This isn’t funny, Logan.”

Logan sighed. “Patton, I would never joke about something like this.”

“But it’s - it’s the same person?” he asked, hoping against hope...

“It is.”

...that it wouldn’t be. 

“Logan, what are we supposed to do? I can’t just - we can’t - I can’t breathe,” Patton stuttered out, trying to keep himself from collapsing.  _ Again. Again. It happened again. _

His boyfriend helped Patton over to the nearest bench. “In for four, hold for seven, out for eight. Honey, it’s gonna be okay…” 

Patton knew that Logan was bad at comforting people. He dealt in facts and figures, and reassurances sometimes just felt like dodging facts to him. They didn’t know if Virgil or Roman was gonna be okay. 

Oh god, they didn’t know if his friends were gonna be okay. Oh  _ god _ .

Patton wanted to start crying right there, but he knew he was in public and he wasn't a child. He was a fully grown young man and he was about to start sobbing in public.

His best friend was trapped with a monster for the second time in a week and a half and Patton couldn’t do anything about it. 

He collapsed into Logan’s arm, still sniffling and trying to regulate his breathing. “Logan - Logan, I don’t want them to die - I don’t want Virgil to die - I don’t -”

“Shhh, shhh, honey, it’s alright. He’s not going to die. I’ll make sure of it myself,” Logan promised, though Patton knew it was impossible, that there was no way Logan was gonna be able to make sure Virgil didn’t die. “Pat, do you want to go to your apartment? I can call an Uber, or we could just walk.”

Patton rubbed his eyes. “I think I need to go home, yeah. You’ve never been to my apartment, right?”

Logan blushed awkwardly. “Well, uh, yeah -”

Patton laughed despite himself. “I forgot about, uh, that. Sorry. Do you know how to get there?” He sniffled again, trying to keep himself from outright crying. “I probably won’t be much help.”

“I know the address, and logically, I could just use Google Maps to find it. Can you make it back without bursting into tears?”

He knew that Logan didn’t mean it as an insult, but it still hurt a bit, as if it was an attack on his emotional instability. 

However, Patton knew it  _ wasn’t _ , and so he didn’t get mad at Logan. Logan would never intentionally hurt him, even if the way he phrased things sometimes stung a bit. 

“Logan, I’m fine. I promise. I just… you know I hate Deceit. He’s a bad person and he nearly ruined me. And the way he messes with people scares me. I know he’s a liar, but it seems like that’s his whole gambit, you know?” Patton shrugged. “He lies to you until you can’t tell what’s fiction any more.”

Logan cocked his head to the side. “One would think that a lot of lying would end up almost comical, especially because it seemed as if he could only tell lies. Like everything he said was the reverse of what he meant.”

“Yeah, I guess that makes sense.” Patton giggled. “You’re right. That does make it a little bit funny!”

His boyfriend laughed along with him. “Right?” Logan said, smiling despite the situation. “It makes him seem much less scary, at least in my eyes.”

“It kind of does.” That was one of the things that Patton loved about Logan, that despite his affinity for facts and logic, he was still kind and could be entertaining if he wanted. 

Patton loved Logan a lot. 

They walked home, Logan talking mostly to himself about something science-y that Patton thought was interesting, but he didn’t really understand. It was a welcome distraction, however. When they reached Patton’s house, Logan walked off to try and call someone, whether it be Remy or Joan or Roman, if he could reach him. Patton changed into some comfy pajamas (yes, he knows it’s the afternoon, shut up) and curled up with hot chocolate and a blanket, hoping to comfort some of the stress away. When Logan had been unable to get through to anyone at the palace, he sat down next to Patton and suggested they watch something, hoping it would take Patton’s mind off of the unknown events at the palace. Patton agreed and suggested cuddling, to which Logan (with fake reluctance Patton saw right through) agreed to as well, snuggling up next to Patton. They sat next to each other until Logan received a call from Roman asking - nearly begging - Logan to come to the palace, that Deceit was gone but something had happened to Virgil. Logan glanced at Patton, asking his permission, to which Patton nodded solemnly. “But you’re not going anywhere without me, okay? Those are my friends in there too. Virgil is my best friend, if he’s hurt, I want to be there for him,” Patton said. “Give me a couple minutes to change and then we can go.”

Logan sighed. “Patton -”

“Honey, Deceit is gone. There’s no threat to me. I’ll be okay,” Patton promised. 

His boyfriend bit his lip. “Fine. I… I love you, I hope you know that. I just want you to be safe.”

“I know, Lolo. I know. But I swear I’ll be okay. Let’s go help our friends, then?” Patton said, kissing Logan on the cheek quickly before standing up. “I love you too.”

\---

Virgil’s day was definitely going worse than he expected. 

First, it was revealed that his crush was his soulmate, but he’d been hiding it from Virgil (which was fun), then he was attacked by one of the worst people ever, his friend was in danger, and then Roman kissed him. It was quick, but it was fierce, and it made Virgil feel things and Virgil didn’t like that.

Virgil was  _ trying _ to get over Roman and then Roman had to go and fuck it up and then the snakey asshole had shown up and he went and fucked everything up even more, so wow, somebody up there really hated Virgil, huh?

Well of course they did. He had lost one of his best friends (who was apparently kidnapped by said snakey asshole just because) and had to help the other best friend deal with the loss, all while coping with severe anxiety and a lack of a soulmate. 

And then Logan and Roman came into his life and… it’s better. It got better. 

Virgil marched towards Deceit, purple flannel sleeves rolled up. “Listen, you fucker, you think you can come into my life and do this? You can’t. I won’t let you.”

He snickered. “And what are you going to do about it?”

Virgil threw his hands in the air. “I don’t know! You’re an asshole. You kidnapped my friend, I want him back. What’s that gonna take?” he asked, his voice cracking a bit at the end. “What will it take?”

Deceit studied his meticulously done nails. “It won’t take… you to stop calling the cops on me. I adore their attention.”

Roman spoke up from the back. “So you’ve had trouble with Diaz and her crew before, then? ‘Cause she handled your first visit.”

He shuddered. “Captain Diaz loves me. We’re best friends. And she definitely doesn’t scare me.”

Virgil shrugged. “I met her once. She’s intimidating. I can’t blame you. But please, please, let Thomas go.”

“Sure,” he lied, rolling his eyes. “I’ll do that.”

Virgil stomped his foot in frustration. “What do you fucking want? I’ll get Diaz to lay off, whatever, but please, just let Thomas go. Please,” he begged, frustrated and sad. “I don’t even know what your game is, what you’re doing.”

Roman motioned for Virgil to come back, having noticed he was getting a bit emotional, and Virgil complied, even letting Roman step in front of him. Roman always had this compulsory need to be the hero, he wanted to fight for someone or something. And right now, he could fight for Virgil and he could fight for his kingdom. 

“What is your end goal, Deceit? To make us hate you more?” Roman asked, trying to keep close to Virgil.

The villain laughed. “It gets confusing after a while. Distinguishing truth from fiction. Eventually, you will forget, and you will fight, and I will stand here and I will watch you tear each other to shreds, and I will  _ revel _ in it.”

“That’s fucked up,” Roman said, hand over Virgil’s chest, as if trying to protect him from Deceit’s words. 

Deceit smiled and tilted his head to the side. “Isn’t it?”

Virgil pushed past Roman, red with anger. “You think you can come in here and do this? This isn’t even my palace and I’d defend it against someone like  _ you _ .”

The snake rolled his eyes and walked closer to Virgil, boots clicking on the floor. “Darling,” he drawled, “you can’t even defend it.”

“And what does that mean?” Virgil protested. He was immediately flung back by an unknown force, sending him tumbling back and over the balcony railing. He managed to catch hold of the railing itself, trying to pull himself back up onto the balcony.

Roman and Thomas both screamed, Deceit laughing in the background. 

Virgil didn’t have the upper body strength to hold himself up, and he knew that. 

Was it easier to just… let go? 

The fall wouldn’t kill him. He might not even be too injured. And he sure as hell wasn’t getting back up…

\---

Roman screamed louder than he probably ever would in his whole life as he watched Virgil’s fingers drop from the railing. He wanted to lunge forward, grab Virgil, pull him back up and pull him close and tell him not to do that, never again, he couldn’t lose him.

Thomas just seemed to be in shock. He hadn’t moved from his spot - Roman was starting to think he couldn’t - and he was just staring at the spot where Virgil was previously. 

Deceit glanced over the railing, his face devoid of anything except a sick pleasure, which turned into a grimace as he said, “Damn it, he’s dead.”

Roman shrieked in horror before he realized that the villain was lying and Virgil was, in fact, alive. He sighed, relieved, and moved closer to Deceit. “I’m ready to negotiate.”

Deceit laughed. “What is there left to negotiate? I don’t have everything I want. I don’t have an in to your palace you don’t even know about -”

“I’m gonna stop you right there,” Roman interrupted. “I will find your “in” if it kills me. You will be stopped.”

“You don’t say.” He smirked. “You and who else?”

Thomas stood up in the background, though it clearly cost him a great effort. Something was holding him down, perhaps the same force that had shoved Virgil over the railing. “Me.”

Deceit waved a hand dismissively. “You haven’t been in a coma for a year, the effort wouldn’t kill you.”

Thomas staggered towards Roman, still weighed down by that invisible force. “You have held me captive for a year. You have distanced me from my friends, you have caused them what I can only assume is some of the worst emotional distress of their lives, and then Joan…” Thomas looked at Roman, the pain flashing through his eyes. “Does Joan think I’m dead? They haven’t heard from me in a year.”

Roman nodded slowly, confirming one of Thomas’s worst fears. He looked back at Deceit with fire in his eyes. “My soulmate thinks I’m dead, thanks to you. Everyone thought I was dead and no one came looking.”

“You’re a monster,” Roman growled. “You nearly murdered Virgil. You destroyed Patton, and for that…” He sighed. “Well, I can’t do anything, can I?”

Thomas stared at him, a tiny bit shocked, and Deceit smiled a bit. “You can.”

“If I attack, I’ll get stopped by your invisible wind henchman. If I call the police, you run. That’s why they aren’t here, I had to tell them to hold off.” Roman laughed without any humor behind it. “You’re an awful person, Deceit. But I don’t have any way to stop you yet. I want to grab you by your shirt collar and tell you that I want you gone, that I’m going to punch you for what you did but that wouldn’t be enough.”

Thomas held up a hand. “Roman, please, no murder.”

He groaned. “Well, the other alternative sounded really kinky!”

Deceit just chuckled. “Bye bye now.”

“No!” Roman cried. “You can’t just -”

The villain disappeared in a puff of smoke, causing Thomas to collapse to the ground. Roman ran over to his former employee and friend, wanting to make sure he was alright before they went to check on Virgil, who may have been unconscious. Roman helped Thomas to his feet, and they made their way down to the ballroom floor to see Virgil. 

“Roman, Thomas, you’re alright,” Virgil said, sighing in relief. “I think my leg may be broken, but I’m sure it’s better than the alternative.”

“Does your head hurt?” Thomas asked, crouching down next to his former best friend.

Virgil nodded. “Like a motherfucker. I hit it on the railing.”

Roman put an arm around Virgil, and though Virgil shot him a glare, Roman assumed he was too hurt to be mad about physical affection. “I’m gonna call Logan and Patton, okay? Let them know you’re hurt and we’re off lockdown. Patton’s probably worried sick.”

“He’s actually gotten himself sick from worrying too much about me, so you might be right,” Virgil mused. “Do you remember that, Thomas?”

Thomas smiled. “I do. I do remember that.”

\---

Logan walked in the doors of the palace, Patton having ran in before Logan, rushing to Virgil’s side. “Virge, are you okay? Is your leg broken?”

Virgil laughed. “We think so, yeah. It hurts a lot. But we’re gonna get me to a hospital, okay?”

Patton nodded. “Sounds good.”

Thomas cleared his throat behind them, causing Patton to startle. “Hey, Pat.”

“THOMAS!” Patton cried, crushing his old friend in a hug. “You’re not - oh my god, you’re here! You’re real!”

He chuckled. “That I am, Patton. I’ve missed you, buddy.” 

Patton sniffled a bit, pulling Thomas closer. “I can’t believe it.”

Virgil coughed behind them, causing Patton to glance over at him. “Sorry to interrupt, but would you guys mind taking me to the hospital now?”

“Yes, of course,” Logan said. “Let’s leave.”

Once they were at the hospital, Logan pulled out some paperwork he needed to get done surrounding the attack, while his boyfriend sat next to him. Patton’s presence was comforting. He was soft, and warm.

“Logan?” Patton asked.

“Yes, dear?” Logan responded, looking up from his paperwork he’d managed to bring to the hospital. Roman and Thomas chatted aimlessly in the corner, and Virgil was playing a game on his phone from his hospital bed, though Virgil had glanced over at the two lovebirds when he noticed them talking again. 

“Why don’t we get married?” 

Virgil, who had been watching Logan and Patton, immediately shut up and began to try and get Roman’s attention. “Holy fuck. Holy fuck, Roman, Thomas, shut up and watch this with me,” Virgil hissed, trying to keep his voice down but not even bothering to look behind him. 

“Holy fuck isn’t even a proper swear, Virgil.” Roman rolled his eyes, though he kept his voice down too.

“Bitch, I do not care. Seriously, just watch what’s going on here,” he said, motioning at the bright red Logan and slightly embarrassed Patton. 

“Patton, you want to get married? We’ve barely been dating for two weeks,” Logan replied, looking at his boyfriend.

He shrugged. “I was thinking about it, since Virgil nearly died (“I didn’t!” Virgil shouted, though Roman shushed him.} and I just got Thomas back in my life and all that, and… I realized that life is short. I could lose someone I cared about in an instant. And Logan, we already know we’re going to be together forever - the universe says so - so why not start forever now?”

“That isn’t how forever works,” Logan said, stalling for time to make his decision. “Forever isn’t a timepiece, forever doesn’t have a beginning any more than it has an ending.”

Patton sighed and smiled at him softly. “Is that a yes or a no, honey?”

“I suppose… it’s a yes. I see no logical reason behind saying no. I love you, and you make a fair point about it being probable that you could lose someone you care about at any moment. Did you know -” Logan began, only to be interrupted by Patton throwing his arms around Logan and kissing him passionately. 

Virgil brought his hand to his mouth to cover a smile and Roman cheered, excited beyond belief. There was a faint sniffling sound, and everyone glanced at Thomas.

“Thomas, are you… crying?” Roman asked, seemingly confused by the other’s response to the news.

“It’s just really cute and I have a lot of emotions, okay?” Thomas said, laughing a little as he wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. “I’m so happy for you two! This kind of makes up for the whole Deceit thing. Not really. But you guys are gonna get married!”

Roman gasped. “You can hold the wedding at the palace! Anything you want, it’s yours. The very best wedding planners, caterers, etcetera. Everything you can think of, you have.”

Logan smiled, looping his arm through Patton’s. “That might be a little excessive.”

His friend shook his head, clearly excited. “Logan, you’re my best friend and you work here, and I want to give you your dream wedding. Seriously, just let me have this.”

Logan smiled at his boyfriend - fiance - and nodded, relenting to let Roman take over his wedding. “Let’s get married, then.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> uhhhh follow me on the tumblr @adultmorelikeadolt for more sanders sides content 
> 
> roman and virgil will figure their shit out eventually i promise
> 
> also yay!!!!!!!! logicality!!!!!!


	12. *shoving the next three chapters in the corner* look, shiny fluff

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> i've been holding this over my friends head in order to get her to finish a story but she finished it so here we aaaaaaaaaare
> 
> there's some nsfw jokes and a LOT of cursing but other than that this one is tame

Several weeks after the events at the palace, Virgil was still making good on his unspoken promise to avoid the fuck out of Roman. He threw himself into wedding preparations, aiding Patton with flowers and Logan with vows since neither of the lovebirds wanted to wait long to be married. Their wedding date was set: four weeks from today. 

Four weeks too long, in Virgil’s eyes. He didn’t see why they needed to make a huge fuss about it, the palace wasn’t that nice. 

Of course, Logan and Patton both chalked that up to his current annoyance with his soulmate. Roman had taken to writing Virgil notes and Virgil did the same, though they were much shorter and usually involved a bit more cursing. 

He didn’t have a perfect reason for why he wanted to stay away from Princey. Mostly, Virgil was pissed. Roman had broken his trust and lied to him and certainly made his teenage years suck ass. 

That, and his leg was broken and Virgil was about as coordinated on his crutches as a duck on a slip n slide. 

“Virgil! I’m thinking of changing the color scheme, can you come help me -” Patton began, only to be cut off by a vehement groan from Virgil and a “Please, dear god, the blues are fine, I swear to our lord and savior Stephanie Beatriz if you try and change the color scheme one more time I’m gonna kick you with my good leg.”

“Alright, alright. I think we need a break,” Patton suggested. “I had an idea - why don’t we take your moms up on their dinner offer, we can drag Roman down there, it’ll make Ali’s year.”

Virgil sighed. “I’m torn. On one hand, make Ali super fucking happy. On the other, I have to see Roman.”

“Please, you can be civil to each other for one night, Virge? And I haven’t seen your family since we got engaged. Maybe I can even invite my dad!” Patton said, growing more excited as he kept speaking. “Logan, you’d love my dad. He’s so nice.”

“How am I supposed to turn you down, Patton? Let’s do it. I’ll tell Alyssa and Veronica to add six spaces to the dinner table tonight.” He thought for a second. “Yeah. Six. We’re bringing Thomas, right?”

“Duh!” Patton responded. “That’s a no-brainer.”

Virgil smiled at him and pulled out his cell phone, clicking on Veronica’s number. “Hey, ma!” he said as she picked up. “How’s it going?”

“Vee! Oh, love, it’s been a while since we’ve talked. I heard about the accident, you’re okay, right?” she asked, concerned. 

“Yeah, just a standard broken leg, ma. So, I was hoping we could have a bit of a dinner party down at your place tonight?” Virgil hadn’t had to ask his mother for a favor in a while, but it was still nerve-wracking.

“Of course, Vee! Who do you want to invite?”

He thought back to his mental list. “Um… six people. Plus Natasha. So I think it’s Patton, you know Patton, his dad, Logan - that’s Patton’s fiance, I don’t know if Nat mentioned him, me, Thomas -”

“Thomas? Oh, good to hear he’s back in town. I always did like that boy,” Veronica said, chuckling lightly. “I didn’t know Patton was engaged!”

“It’s recent,” Virgil mumbled. “That’s kind of what we’re celebrating. You didn’t let me tell you the sixth guest, ma.”

“Oh, sorry, love. Who is it?”

Virgil mentally braced himself. “Well, it’s… crown prince Roman.”

“Excuse me?” She laughed. “Very funny, Virgil.”

“No, ma, I’m not joking. It is.” Virgil pinched the bridge of his nose. “Logan works for him and they’re close friends. Ask Ali, they’ve met him.”

“Alright.” 

Virgil heard some muffled yelling as Veronica yelled back and forth with Ali. They must have confirmed his answer because as his mom continued the phone call, she began with “So, one seat for our Majesty, then.”

“Don’t call him that. His staff does it to piss him off sometimes, Roman hates it,” Virgil said, without really thinking. Of course, he didn’t really care whether Roman got upset. He was just making sure the evening went smoothly. 

“Okay, love. I’ll take note of that. I’ll see you around five, Vee?” she asked.

“Yeah. Five sounds good, ma. I’ll let everyone else know. I love you,” he responded, picking at a string on his hoodie.

“Love you too, Virgil.”

Virgil clicked off the call and turned back to his friends. “Alright, five pm tonight, guess we’re celebrating your engagement with my moms and siblings.”

“Awesome!” Patton exclaimed. “Now, I know things are weird between you and Roman right now -”

“They’re not weird,” Virgil grumbled. “I’m mad because he pretended he didn’t have a soulmate, forcing me to think I didn’t have one, and therefore sending me into this whole thing of coping and anxiety and such.”

“Well, he didn’t know it was you he was ignoring,” Logan reasoned. “Roman didn’t think he’d ever meet his soulmate.”

Virgil sighed. “He shouldn’t have ignored anyone like that. I mean, fuck, I sent him messages when he knew me - I wrote “is there anyone there?” the night before the gala.”

“I forgot about that,” Patton mumbled. “Listen, Virgil, I understand - I really do - why you’re mad. But try not to fight him, tonight?”

“Yeah, I owe that to you,” he admitted. “I know I’ve said this a lot… but I really am so happy for you guys. You got your happy ending. Or something. I don’t really care.”

“Virgil…” Patton laughed. “I’m honestly so proud of you, kiddo. Within these few weeks, you’ve grown so much. I feel like a proud father.”

“I’m older than you!” Virgil protested though he was so grateful for his friend’s words. God, Patton meant the world to him. Virgil would rather die than live without him. And hearing Patton say he’d grown, as a person, even in three and a half weeks, well, it made Virgil feel a bit better. 

And maybe Patton was right - he’d come a little ways from panicking the night before a gala. 

Or a lot of ways. 

_ That’s not proper grammar,  _ he thought.

Damn it, Logan had rubbed off on him. Curse that fucking nerd. 

\---

“Hello?” Roman answered the phone with one hand still on his powder brush. “This is Prince Roman’s direct line, are you a staff member or here with an emergency?” 

“No, this is Patrick.”

Roman laughed and set down his brush. “Hi, Patton! How are you? Logan doing good? I’m missing him here at the palace.”

“Good, we’re just working with Virgil here with the planning!” Patton said, voice faltering on Virgil’s name. “We’re gonna pack up soon, I swear. I just can’t say goodbye to my little place yet!”

“I understand, Patton,” Roman responded with a sigh. “I keep telling Logan you guys don’t have to move here, you can find somewhere else to live.”

Roman fiddled with the contour palette as Patton listed all the reasons they just  _ couldn’t _ move anywhere else. Mostly, they were “we can’t do that to you” and “I also really wanna live in a palace, and it’s not too far away from work”, but he always felt bad about forcing Patton to relocate farther away from his little shop. He was the damn crown prince, he could survive without his babysitter. 

(Lie. No, he wouldn’t. The kingdom would fall apart if Logan didn’t help Roman with everything. Roman was not looking forward to Logan and Patton’s honeymoon - there would be no more country to run at the end of that.)

Ah, young love. Roman adored romance, big, sweeping gestures and heart eyes - he was an avid fan of prom-posals, having never gotten to go to prom himself. 

But Roman didn’t want it for himself, because in full honesty, he was dead scared. He was scared of exactly what had happened to him: rejection, by the only person who would ever love him. 

Well, it wasn’t head-on rejection, per say. It was “you made my teenage years hell, and I don’t want to -”

“Roman, are you listening to me?” Patton asked, chuckling a bit.

He dropped his makeup brush and shook his head to clear his thoughts, saying, “Sorry, sorry, just got distracted.”

“It’s okay! I was just making sure you were free tonight. Virgil’s moms are hosting a little get-together for Logan and I, since his parents aren’t really a part of his life and my dad doesn’t know how to organize things for shhhhhoelaces.” He sighed. “That didn’t make sense.” Roman laughed as Patton continued with, “Virgil’s swearing rubs off on me. I told Talyn to fuck off once. Their look was priceless.”

“Oh my gods, I would have paid to see that. Wait, is Virgil still… not talking to me?” he asked, trying to keep the hopeful tone out of his voice that said “please, I hope he isn’t”.

“Well, we told him to be civil for the evening. But trust me, you’ll be so busy you won’t even see Virgil,” Patton reassured him. “Are you really that upset he’s not speaking to you?”

Roman started, unsure of the tone of Patton’s question. “I - uh, well, I don’t - I don’t want him to be mad. I like Virgil, he’s a good person. And ask your friend Thomas what I looked like when he fell, it couldn’t have been pretty.”

He paused for a second, considering his last sentence. “I am always pretty, though. But it was a rather unholy scream. How is his leg doing?”

“Better!” Patton said enthusiastically. “He’s learning to walk on his crutches a little bit more. It’s a learning process, and Virgil doesn’t have a lot of patience, but he’s getting better.” 

“That’s good.” Roman took a highlighting palette off his shelf. “So what’s going on? Anything else you needed to ask me about?”

“Uh, nope! You can get down to the place if Logan or I send you the address, right?” he asked.

Roman fiddled with his hair a bit. “It’s in the country, right?”

“Yeah, it’s -” 

Patton was cut off by a loud slam from Roman’s end. “Roman, how are you?” Remy called. “I’m dying, so if you’re doing preparing for your date -”

“I’m on the phone, Remy,” Roman said. “Sorry, what was that, Patton?” 

“Girl, this is important. Hurry up.”

Roman rolled his eyes and turned away from Remy. “So, since this asshole demands my attention -” Remy made a noise of protest, claiming that it “was soooo important, girl, come on”, “I think I gotta go. I’ll see you at dinner, then?”

“Yeah!” Patton said. “Can’t wait. Love ya, kiddo!”

“Love you too, Patton.” Roman clicked off the call and turned back to his publicist. “What the fuck is that important you had to interrupt me?”

Remy held out his arm, which, normally coated in leather, had the sleeves pushed back to reveal a rather long-winded message. 

_ Hey Remy! I know we don’t talk all that often, you’re busy and such, and of course, we live in different countries. Minnesota is nice this time of year, though!  _

_ That’s kind of off-topic. I wanted to write out this whole thing to let you know I’ll be in the Royal City (where you work - right?) this weekend and I was hoping we could finally, finally meet!  _

_ I understand if you’re too busy, but talking to you these past 10 or so years has been awesome! I can’t wait to even see the Royal City and the palace, even if you can’t make it. You have my number if you wanna work something out! _

_ Sincerely, Emile _

Roman laughed. “God, he’s so sweet to you. What are you freaking out about, Remy?”

“Well, I don’t fucking know! Emile is just… he’s not like me. He likes cartoons and Disney movies and pink. That isn’t my thing, Roman,” Remy explained. 

Roman sighed. “He’s asexual, right?”

“Yeah, yeah, but that isn’t the problem, I can live without sex. The problem is that he’s too damn sweet and I’m not.” Remy ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. “So what do I say? Do I tell him I’m too busy?”

“No! Hell no, Remy, you tell him you want to meet him. Come on, you know you like Emile. He’s your soulmate,” Roman continued. “And he’s literally perfect for you. In fact,” he said, waving his hand through the air, “You have Saturday off. All of your daily duties will be transferred to Joan whether they bitch about it or not.”

Remy raised an eyebrow. “Roman -”

“No. Shut up. Go meet your boyfriend,” he said. “I’m feeling generous today.”

“Not my boyfriend. Why are you so happy?” Remy asked, laughing. 

Roman smiled softly. “I finally get to see Virgil again.”

\---

Logan… wasn’t entirely sure if he was given a choice in the decision to have a rather late engagement dinner, but here he was. 

(As a side note - Virgil had run off a couple seconds ago to go prep his moms on how to handle “that dick” as he had put it. “That dick” was more commonly known as Prince Roman, and Virgil wanted to make sure nobody accidentally offended him or did something to hurt him. 

Now, repeat that again about how much he hates Roman?

This isn’t supposed to come off as a sort of argument that Virgil shouldn’t be mad at Roman, because he should. But Virgil missed Roman, he did, and they needed to sit down and take some responsibility, not just kiss and fight and fight and kiss.)

This might have been due to him not paying full attention to the conversation and instead choosing to update his Tumblr page, centered around the hidden goings-on in the Arellano palace. Roman had recently given Joan and a couple other employees (and Logan himself) a makeover, and Remy did a full on photoshoot. Logan simply felt that showing the public some of the stuff that went on behind the facade of the orderly royal family was necessary - and Remy had approved since the beginning.

(Joan had suggested the name “Keeping Up with the Arellanos” as the blog title - and Logan, despite the reference being unknown to him at the time, had agreed.) 

But Patton was excited, and it’d be nice to actually meet Patton’s dad. Not that Logan was anything for traditional (Four weeks of dating before they decided to say “fuck it” and get married) but he still didn’t want to hate his…

Husband.

Husband. Patton would be his… husband. 

The word felt strange in his mind. In Logan’s ten-step plan to become a chemist, none of the steps involved getting married before he was 25. Or not being a chemist.

But sometimes, instead of being single and a chemist, you’re engaged and the prince’s babysitter. Shit happens.

“Patton, why are we hosting this at Virgil’s house, exactly? Why not your place? Or hell, I’m sure if you asked, Roman would make it a big thing,” Logan asked. 

“Aw, I don’t need a big thing. This is going to sound so cheesy, but my ideal way to host this dinner is just my friends and me.” He smiled. “And you.”

Logan flushed. “I - I - uh, I don’t -”

“We are getting  _ married _ and you still don’t know how to respond to compliments?” Patton giggled. “I don’t mean it in a bad way, though! You’re adorable when you’re flustered.”

“Flirting isn’t my thing!” he protested. “And I just don’t know how to react.”

“I know, honey. But since you’re gonna be my husband -”

“Doesn’t that sound weird to you?” Logan interrupted. 

Patton blinked a couple times in confusion. “Does what sound weird to me?” he asked. 

“Husband,” Logan said, the word feeling a bit weirder out loud. “Husband. You’re going to be my husband.”

“Well, yeah, honey, that’s how being married works!” Patton replied, laughing harder. 

“Don’t laugh at me!” Logan exclaimed though he was fighting a smile himself. “It isn’t weird to you at all?”

He shrugged. “Logan, when you know you want to spend the rest of your life with someone… you know. There’s no need to beat around the bush and ignore whatever little voice is telling you that they are the one for you. And you, Logan…” Patton sighed dreamily. “You are the one for me.”

“I don’t fucking know how to respond to that, Pat,” Logan said, candidly as could be. “You’re so sweet.”

“I know!” he responded cheerily. “You’re sweet too, Logan.”

Logan shook his head. “I am not. I prefer to show my affection in other ways.”

“Other ways, huh?” Patton asked slyly, causing Logan to blush and stutter out a “I - uh - I guess-” once again. 

“How do you manage to make me a mess in just three words?” Logan huffed, sitting down on Patton’s bed. “You act so innocent and then you say shit like  _ that. _ ”

He shrugged. “It’s a talent. Virgil keeps a list of the dirty jokes I’ve made around him. He reacts like I said a bad word around a five-year-old.”

“Wonder why,” Logan said, laughing.

“So I wasn’t kidding about those other ways…” Patton wiggled his eyebrows, and Logan nearly fell over, unsure of whether to laugh or not but definitely blushing. 

“Patton!”

His fiance rolled his eyes goodnaturedly. “What? We have like an hour.”

“I’m going to do my paperwork,” Logan mumbled, face the color of Roman’s decorative sash. Mustering all the normality he had left, he said, “Maybe… later tonight?”

Patton winked. “Looking forward to it.”

Oh god, Patton really knew how to turn Logan into a blushy mess, didn’t he? 

\---

Was Patton normally this flirty? No, but for some reason, he was in the mood for it tonight. There was a subconscious joke of his that he was counterbalancing Roman and Virgil’s awkward sexual and regular tension (which there was a lot of, unfortunately) with him and Logan being a normal couple. 

After Logan had finished his paperwork, they called an Uber to take them out to the country. 

The “country” mostly meant any part of Roman’s small kingdom that wasn’t the Royal City. Patton had been to Virgil’s childhood home at least… a rough estimate of forty billion times, so he knew the way around the suburb Virgil was from pretty well. (Patton was from the outskirts of La Ciudad Real, the bit that bordered this town, so he also knew the opposite. Street smarts!) So since they still had about thirty minutes until they had to be at Virgil’s house, Patton dragged Logan around the Olde Town and even showed him the place he had had his first kiss. 

“Here, Logan, let’s take a picture. My high school ex-boyfriend follows me on Instagram. I wanna show him my upgrade,” Patton joked. 

“I didn’t -” Logan began, a bit uncomfortable

“No, don’t worry about it, we’re friends. But he posted a picture with his new girlfriend here and we’ve had a small running joke about it. Plus, I wanna show everyone my old and new worlds combining!” He smiled. “Also, would it be so bad to post a picture of my fiance on my Instagram?”

“It would not, I suppose,” Logan relented. Patton beamed and took the pictures, snapping a couple of them just smiling and one of them kissing in front of a fountain. 

**@patton-cake-moras:** Blast from the past meets my whole entire future: my fiance Logan ( **@logicallylogan** ) and I are in Olde Town this evening to celebrate our engagement with the whole Reagan clan and my dad! Can’t believe I got this lucky to have Logan by my side somehow.

Logan blushed reading the caption. “We should get going soon…”

**_Logan Sinclair_** _@logicallylogan_ **5:01 PM**

> Patton insists on taking cute pictures and posting them to Instagram. I don’t exactly see the point, but I’m willing to pose if it makes him happy. <

Patton checked his phone clock. “Oh, yeah, we need to go. I can’t wait for you to meet Alyssa and Veronica, they’re great. And my dad! His name is Brian, by the way. Mr. Moras.”

“Like morals without the “l”,” Logan said, recalling the pronunciation tip Patton had mentioned for his last name.

He grinned. “You remembered that!”

“Well, it was a useful tip… and I have a bit of trouble with Spanish, even though I live with Roman.” Logan sighed. “Speaking of living with Roman -”

“I know,” Patton cut in. “We have to deal with moving and such. We can work that out later.”

Logan shook his head. “No, that isn’t what I wanted to say. I want you to know that if you don’t want to move to the palace, we don’t have to.”

“I do! Logan, that’s one of my silly childhood dreams coming true. And I can just walk to the shop, and I can take 86th now!” Patton said, rather proud of himself. Now that Thomas was back, Virgil and Thomas had been helping him get over the negativity he had always harbored towards the street closest to the shop from the palace. 

“That’s awesome, honey! I’m proud of you.” Logan was sincere, of course. He was proud. Patton felt good. 

Thomas had texted Patton earlier informing him that he was gonna be a bit late, his time with Joan had stretched out a bit longer as Thomas was trying to adjust back to life in the city and Joan, faking a casual excitement (and failing), had agreed to help their soulmate out. 

Platonic soulmates were just as damn awesome as romantic ones. Joan and Thomas were perfect for each other but like in the way that best friends know just how to keep you entertained or how to calm you down. The kind that knows exactly what dumb thing you wanna do and they’re gonna record it for Instagram. 

The best kind. 

Logan was the best kind, too! But with a romantic soulmate, Patton could also kiss him, and cuddle with him, and sleep with him. It was a win-win situation. 

Patton rang the doorbell to Virgil’s moms’ house, taking Logan’s hand in his. Ali, Virgil’s little sibling, answered the door, crushing Patton in a hug as they did. 

“Patton! Logan! You guys made it!” they exclaimed. “Thomas and the prince haven’t showed up yet, but -”

“Thomas is gonna be a little late,” Patton butted in. “And Roman likes to be dramatic.”

“Fuck yeah his dumbass does,” Virgil called, earning him three “LANGUAGE”s at once. Ali stifled a laugh. “And your dad is here, Pat.”

“Oh! Awesome.” He tugged on Logan’s hand. “I want you to meet my dad, then.”

They made their way through the house, saying hello to Virgil and Natasha in the living room, to the kitchen, where the actual adults were hanging out. As Logan introduced himself to everyone, there was a loud knock at the front door. Ali opened it once again and nearly screeched, saying “hi, Prince Arellano!”

“Oh, fuck me,” Virgil cursed. 

“Language!” 

  
  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fooooooooooooooooollow me on tumblr @adultmorelikeadolt and tell me how much you absolutely adore me or how much you hate me i take both 
> 
> also don't forget to like, comment and give me those sweet sweet kudos if you haven't already, i'm gonna go binge simplynailogical and eat cookies


	13. this chapter brought to you by coffee and a lack of sleep

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> WE'RE BACK BITCHES
> 
> uh, lots of kissing, just overall, some angst at the beginning, nothing too wild
> 
> i'm so sorry it's been so long! love you all!

Roman glanced around the room. “Mrs. and Ms. Reagan, you have a lovely home.”

Veronica walked into the front room from the kitchen, slightly awestruck at the actual presence of the prince. “Thank you, Prince Arellano! It's - I - I don't know what to say. I still slightly thought my son was playing a prank on me!” 

Virgil groaned. “Ma, I wasn't kidding. Roman, you're late.”

“So is Thomas!” he protested. “And besides, it's not like you care. You don't want me here anyway.” 

“Oh my god, I am not doing this with you right now.” Virgil rolled his eyes. “Ma, can you give us a minute?” 

She nodded and backed out of the room, leaving a very annoyed Virgil behind with the Prince. 

“Roman, are you fucking kidding me?” Virgil asked. 

“Watch your language,” Roman said, amused. “And come on, Virge. I’ve been trying to talk to you for weeks on weeks -”

“Four weeks.”

“That is what I said. Virge, I miss you,” he continued. “Like, I really miss you. I know, I know you have your reasons, I know you hate me right now and I deserve that. But please,  _ talk _ to me about it and don’t just push me away.”

Virgil sighed. “First off, you lost all privileges to call me Virge when you revealed that you were the one that made my years leading up to that moment you told me, “hey, I’m your soulmate and I’m in love with you,” and you didn’t give me enough time to say “what the fuck” before I was literally attacked by a mcfucking snake.”

Roman waited for a bit before speaking up. “And second?”

“I covered all my points in the first thing.”

“Okay, well, Virgil, you have every damn right to be mad at me right now. But you’re also right about something else,” Roman started, only to be cut off by one of Virgil’s moms - Alyssa this time - coming into the room to let the boys know that dinner was ready and they needed to come to sit with everyone else. Virgil gave Roman a look that very clearly said “don’t try anything” and both boys followed Alyssa into the dining room. Roman noted that he and Virgil would be sitting opposite each other, which was lovely. He also noticed the discomfort written across Logan’s face, the excitement all over Patton’s, and everybody else’s “holy fuck it’s Prince Roman” look. 

Ahem. Holy fuck was  _ not _ a proper swear. No matter how many times Virgil used it. 

Patton’s dad chuckled. “Gee, when you guys said Prince Roman was coming, I kind of assumed that was his first name.”

Oh yeah, that was definitely Patton’s dad. 

Roman laughed as well. “Surprise? I’m quite grateful I was able to get away for a night. I’m sure my advisor is horrified at the thought, but Logan is my…” He sighed. “Logan’s my best friend. I wouldn’t miss this for the world.”

Logan eased a bit. “And I thank you for that, though I’m afraid Remy and Joan will have somehow covered our palace in bubble wrap for some inane experiment.”

“No, Remy has the weekend off. It’ll be Joan cussing out all of our employees,” Roman remarked, taking his seat. 

“Why in the world would you give Remy the weekend off?” he asked incredulously. 

“Emile’s in town!” the prince protested. “I wasn’t about to make him work the first weekend he’d ever get to meet his actual soulmate.”

“You’re a hopeless romantic!” Logan shook his head. “Apologies for that. Veronica, this looks delicious.”

She smiled. “Natasha helped.” Natasha mouthed “I did it all” in the background and Patton stifled a giggle behind his hand. 

Ali bounced up and down in their seat, asking, “Prince Roman, Prince Roman -”

Roman waved them off. “Just Roman is fine. I don’t mind.”

“It just doesn’t feel quite right, your Highness,” Alyssa admitted. Virgil groaned and pulled his hoodie over his face. 

“Okay, well, then Prince Roman works well enough,” he said, offering Ali a smile. They blushed and Virgil buried himself deeper into his hoodie.

Dinner went on, Virgil and Roman barely fighting the whole time, until Roman made a playful comment about Virgil’s hoodie and Virgil retaliated with “Oh, yeah, because the fact that I like a specific hoodie is so dumb compared to the fact that, oh, I need it to cover up the fourteen billion messages you keep writing me!” 

The adults all sighed collectively, Patton just shook his head, and Logan just looked disappointed. 

“We were so close. So close,” Patton mumbled. “I thought you were at least going to last until Thomas got here.”

“It's not my fault -”

“He's being a jerk -” 

“Both of you, shut up.” Patton stood up. “Veronica, do you have anywhere I could lock the two of them until they can sort this out?” 

Ali gasped. “We have a closet that locks.” 

“I'm not - No.” He sighed. “You know what, I'm just gonna make the two of you go outside. Take a walk to Olde Town. Talk to each other about this instead of being snippy and getting into fights at my engagement dinner. And for god's sake, apologize when you're back because Roman, you may be a prince, but you're acting like a jerk.” Virgil opened his mouth to speak, but Patton stopped him before he could. “And you're not off the hook either. I'll get you your crutches and you can tell Roman how you feel instead of assuming he knows every detail of your mind right now.”

“But -”

“No buts,” Veronica said, a bit amused. “Listen to your friend.”

Patton retrieved Virgil's crutches, helping him stand up and then essentially forcing Roman and Virgil outside before shutting the door behind them and returning to the dining room. 

Roman sighed. “Shall we?” 

Virgil swung around on his crutches, turning himself towards Roman. “There’s a park about five minutes away, in the Olde Town. Let’s go there and… talk.” He said the last word like Patton had suggested they have sex in public, causing Roman to roll his eyes. 

They didn’t talk for a very long time, even after they had made it to the park and sat down on a bench. 

Eventually, Roman spoke up. “Virgil, I -”

“Don’t. Don’t start. I don’t want your excuses or your bullshit. I want you to listen to me. I want you to stop… whatever this is, chasing me, flirting with me,” Virgil said. “Roman, I cannot forgive so easily.”

“And I don’t want you to! I deserve… for you…” he trailed off because somehow they had both gravitated towards each other, in some sort of tandem movement. 

And their faces were so close together, and Roman was highly aware of the color of Virgil’s eyes and how they were sparkling in the twilight, and just at that moment when Roman was about to close the gap (because that’s what it felt like he should do, of course), Virgil pushed him away. 

“Virgil, what's wrong?”

"You only care about yourself, Roman, all you care about is how this affects you!" Virgil said, his voice breaking on the last word. "I can't - I cannot honestly tell you that I don't love you back, but I can't tell someone that I love him when I know that's all he wants to hear from me."

“Then don't,” Roman responded, voice barely a whisper. “Then just don't say it. I don't know how to convince you that I really care for you, care about you, but god, Virgil…” he trailed off, shaking his head. 

“I love you.”

\-- 

Logan had ever felt so at home and yet so out of place at one time than he did at the Reagans’ place. 

Now, don’t get him wrong, Virgil’s mothers were perfectly lovely, and Patton’s dad Brian had already taken to Logan, thankfully. But he just felt… wrong, amongst these people that Patton meshed with so easily. 

Though, this could all be explained by the fact that they were, in one case quite literally, Patton’s family. 

But weren’t they all going to be family, anyway?

Luckily (to an extent), he was saved from his internal monologue by a loud slam from the front room. “Sorry, guys!” a voice immediately followed, and Logan relaxed as he realized that Thomas had finally arrived. 

Ali jumped up immediately and ran to hug the young man as he walked into the dining room, crying “Thomas!” as they did so. 

Thomas chuckled and hugged the teenager back. “It’s been a little while, hasn’t it?”

Veronica shook her head. “Where have you been?” she asked. “I didn’t even know you were back in the city!”

“Vacation,” Thomas said as Logan chimed in with “Studying somewhere else.” They couldn’t well say that he’d essentially been good as dead for that whole year, could they?

Patton’s dad gave them a weird look but shrugged it off. The other adults in the room were a bit less lenient, but nobody said anything. 

The rest of dinner was rather fun, the group laughing and telling stories - Logan now knew a lot of the dumb stuff Virgil had done when he was a child, along with some adorable tales about his fiance - though Roman and Virgil never ended up making it back. The Reagans assured Logan they’d go looking for them soon and sent Logan and Patton back home to finish packing. 

Logan could still see the disappointment in Patton’s eyes when they mentioned packing. He loved his little apartment, that much was for certain, and who was Logan to take him away from that?

“Patton?” Logan began as they walked back to the subway station to ride back home (no sense in borrowing a car when the station was two minutes from their house). “Do you really want to move to the palace?”

“Yes, of course!” he said, though Logan was sure he heard Patton’s voice falter a bit. “Logan, back on our first date, before I left, I was thinking about… how if this went somewhere, I would be so excited to live in the palace!”

“But…” Logan trailed off, prompting the rest of the sentence to come from Patton. 

Patton sighed. “But nothing, Logan. It would be much easier on you if we lived where you should live for your job.”

“I don’t need to live there. As long as I’m close…” Logan took a deep breath. “And what if I quit?”

“Logan, don’t be crazy. Roman needs you,” he reminded Logan. “He can’t function without your help.”

Logan thought for a second. “Then maybe I wait until Virgil and Roman finally get something worked out. Virgil’s smart, right?” he said, and Patton nodded. “When they’re together, Virgil can help Roman since they’ll want to live together anyway. And then we can buy the apartment above your shop, and I can get a teaching degree, and… we can settle down. Build a life. You’ll have your shop, and I’ll get a new job, and we can adopt dogs, and cats, and kids.” Logan sighed. “Imagine it.”

Patton chuckled. “I think Roman is rubbing off on you. Quite a dream you have there, Logan.”

Logan flushed. “Dumb, isn’t it?”

“It’s not dumb, of course not! Logan, I know you never really had like, encouraging parents or whatever, but my dad always said that dreams were worth following, you know?” Patton tugged at Logan’s hand as he said that, pulling him towards their platform. “My dream was to open a coffee shop and be able to support a family doing what I love. My dream as I got older was to protect Virgil, and then to protect myself. And then when I met you…” Patton smiled. “That family I mentioned? I dreamt that I wanted to start it with you.”

\--

Patton loved watching Logan flustered. And it was just so easy to make him so!

As they were sitting on the subway, hands intertwined in Patton’s lap, Logan was showing Patton the Tumblr he kept of things that happened with Roman and some various others at the palace. According to Logan, he was particularly proud of a couple of the shots. 

When they got home, Patton reluctantly continued to shove things in boxes, Logan following him and taking them out to organize them better. 

Patton didn’t want to move. He didn’t. But Logan needed this job and that plan, the fantasy Logan had created… was perfect. 

If you’ve been following Patton’s internal monologue for a while, hi returning listeners, you would know that as dumb as it sounds, Patton has always wanted the perfect family with a dog and kids and a husband who loved him. And he was a third of the way there!

He’s not a housewife from the 1950s, shut the hell up. Patton was always more of a right-brain, positivity, fantasy type, Almost like a slightly less rich, less dramatic, more familial Roman. 

Er, maybe he was just his own person. 

“Logan?” Patton asked, flopping down on the bed. “Why are we getting married?”

“You proposed, sweetheart.”

“I know but like… why did you say yes?” he continued. Logan chuckled a bit, wrapping a picture frame in paper. 

“I said yes because I love you, Patton, and my world is a little bit crazy now. My life was normal… and then I met you.” He sighed. “And all of a sudden my normal has shifted. In some ways for the better, some ways for the worse. But I know, somehow, I made the right decision.”

Patton cooed. “That is just so sweet, honey bun. Do we have to finish packing tonight?”

“Not quite, but I do have to leave soon, honey.”

“Really?” he whined. 

Logan shook his head, laughing. “Yes. We’re scheduled to move in two days. And even if we’re following my plan of moving out when Roman and Virgil are finally stable enough to not ruin the kingdom, we still have to wait.”

“The plan. Yes.” Patton sighed. “Logan -”

“Patton. Please. Just think about it, honey, okay?” Logan leaned over, kissing his fiance on his forehead. “I think I ought to run and see if Roman ever made it home. I can’t sleep over, sorry.”

“But babe,” Patton whined, grabbing Logan’s tie and pulling him down onto the bed with him. “Stay?”

.“I have to go…” Logan said, pushing himself back up. “I love you, Patton, Goodbye.”

Patton waved goodbye and blew his fiance a kiss, hating the vaguely ominous nature of Logan’s goodbye. God, what would he do if something happened to Logan the same way it happened to Thomas? 

Well, he’d finally crack for certain this time. He’d never recover. 

As Virgil would say, “yikes, Patton.”

He didn’t really want to stay home, but Roman and Virgil were out, and Logan had just left. Anybody else?

Just like Patton had magically made it happen, his phone buzzed with a call from…

“Remy?”

“Hey, girl. So I need a little bit of help, and the boss is out and Logan isn’t exactly the romantic type,” Remy answered. 

Patton chuckled. “Tell me about it.” 

“So, ya know, I’m all like, “okay, I’ll hit up his fiance then since we all know he knows exactly how to get Logan all worked up, he certainly knows something about romance and  _ love _ or whatever.” Remy sighed. “But then the rational part of my brain is like “you don’t even know Patton!” but the other part of my brain is like “you know him enough!” so here we are, hope I’m not bugging you too much.”

“Not at all, Remy! What’s up?” he asked, propping himself up on his bed. 

Remy was quiet for a bit. “So… how did you and Logan meet? Did you fall in love instantly, or was it like a slow thing?”

“I don't know. I think it was pretty much instant. Why do you ask?”

“I…” he took a deep breath. “I have to meet my soulmate, Emile. Tomorrow morning for coffee. I’m...”

The line went silent. 

“Remy?”

“I’m dead scared, Pat,” Remy admitted. “I talked to Roman about this, but we’re the opposite of each other. And I’ve never seen him in person before! What if… what if he doesn’t like me?”

Remy sounded nervous, he did sound terrified - it was an emotion Patton hadn’t seen on the young palace employee. Remy was 21, a bit younger than Patton, but infinitely more brave and sassy. Yet the poor boy was reduced to anxiety over meeting someone who was supposed to love him unconditionally.

Yeah, Patton could see that. 

“What’s Emile like?” he asked, and he heard Remy sigh dreamily over the phone. 

“He’s perfect. He loves cartoons, and helping people, and pink, and I looked at his Instagram - Emile is never the guy I thought I’d been falling for, but the universe knows what it’s doing, huh?” Remy finished. 

Patton glanced at a framed picture of him and Logan. “That it does.”

\--

Virgil felt the words come out of his mouth before he could fully process what he was saying. “I love you.”

Roman blinked. “You do?”

“I guess I do. I - I mean, I don’t know what I’m doing, Roman! You’ve got me so confused.” Virgil groaned. 

“I do that to a lot of guys.” 

Virgil laughed despite himself. “Shut up!” Roman grinned, happy to have made Virgil laugh. “I should be pissed at you. I am pissed at you. I was never quick to forgive, but I can’t… Do you sincerely apologize for what you did?”

“Oh god, Virgil, of course. I’m beating myself up for it. And I know - I know I can’t make this about me. This is my damn fault. I fucked this up for all of us for some shitty idea of independence from my parents,” Roman said, tugging at the faded red highlights upon his head.. “Look, my hair is already fading. There were better ways to prove that I wasn’t my father or… my mother, more like it, than swearing off my soulmate.”

“Ya think?”

Roman and Virgil both laughed, a lot of the tension dissipated. “So… about what you said earlier…” Roman began, smirking. 

“I take it back,” Virgil mumbled. “I don’t.”

“Virgil! You said you loved me, I can’t just not ask,” Roman protested. 

He ran his fingers through his hair. “Yeah, okay, maybe I love you a little bit. But… I’ve been meaning to ask you. What happened with your parents?”

Roman sighed, the air around them growing heavy. “My mother wanted the best for me. Or, what she thought was the best for me, as the prince of a growing kingdom. I was rarely allowed outside, never allowed to just go have fun, and my mother  _ always _ wanted me to marry a woman who would be the perfect queen.” He glanced at Virgil. “I think I failed.” 

Virgil snorted. “Just a bit.”

“Virgil… you’re amazing, I hope you know that,” Roman said, taking Virgil’s hand in his. “And I think I won the soulmate lottery. But -”

The end of Roman’s sentence was interrupted by Virgil grabbing Roman’s shirt collar and pulling the prince towards him, kissing him hard on the lips. 

“Holy fuck,” Roman muttered as he pulled away. “Look at that, you’ve got me using improper swears.”

Virgil giggled. “I kind of wanted my turn at that.”

“Do it more often.” Roman sighed. “ _ Please _ .”

“Roman!” he exclaimed. “We’re in a park. Don’t be creepy.” He realized something, his face lighting up. “Oh shit, we’re in a park. We should have gone back to the party.”

Roman shook his head. “No, Virgil, I’m taking you on a date to celebrate. They won’t miss us. You’re from around here, where’s a place that serves good food?” he asked, glancing around as if it would be there in the park. 

“I’ve never been on a date, Roman,” Virgil admitted. “But Olde Town has some good places. Won’t people realize you’re like, our crown prince, though?”

He shrugged. ”Who cares?”

“You - never mind. Hey,” Virgil said, “I had an idea. Remember the frozen yogurt place you went to like once when you were fifteen? That’s down here, I doubt you even remember at all -”

“The first time we met,” Roman interrupted. “We were both fifteen. My mom had dragged me down there for something I don’t remember, but I asked her to stop and she relented. I saw a boy, with starstruck siblings as he stared down at the ground. I didn’t know what to say, so I said nothing. And the people came up, andt hey wanted to talk.. .but I wanted to talk to the boy in the black hoodie who didn’t want to. You fascinated me. Why were you the only one not amazed to see me?”

“I wasn’t.I’m just good at hiding it,” he said. “So you were a dork even back before we knew each other?”

“I’m not a dork!” he protested. 

“Oh, honey. You’re a total dork. Come on, we need to take the bus into town,” Virgil said as he tried to figure out a way to stand up with his crutches., prompting a scoff from Roman. “Come on, Princey. You’re dating a commoner now, I don’t ride in pumpkin carriages.”

“I’m not a Disney prince, Virge. Also, we’re dating?” Roman asked.

He rolled his eyes. “Kind of. We’re kind of dating. That’s as much as you get.”

“Works for me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so they finally got their heads out of their asses, how do we feel about that
> 
> thank you for reading, love you all!!
> 
> don't forget to liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiike comment and subscribe!


	14. angst? i can't believe you'd even suggest that

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> it's not been two and a half months you're delusional 
> 
> in all honesty, i'm sorry, this fic fell on the backburner while i worked through some other stuff. but i'm back, with a nice lil 3.6k chapter for you to enjoy!!!

Logan was still on his way back to the palace when he got lost. 

Now, seriously, Logan didn’t mean to get lost. He has the way back to the palace memorized. But counting footsteps doesn’t always work when you’re staring at wedding plans on your phone. 

But no matter how, he was lost. 

He walked down an alleyway, knowing it was a bad decision, but Logan was pretty sure he knew where he was… 

It wasn’t until he heard the person laugh he realized he was in some serious danger. 

Logan had made it a rule never to walk into the city at night. You heard bad things about La Ciudad Real at nighttime, for the ruler couldn’t keep track of the city at every moment.

It was hard to tell what was fiction told to discourage teenagers from running around the city at night and what was reality, but in a world where there’s a little bit of magic everywhere - the ink that transcended skin, the villains who could control the wind, those who disappeared into thin air… those who went with unwillingly… was it really so hard to imagine that in this world there's a little bit of danger everywhere too?

Logan froze, hearing a second laugh. He reminded himself that there was nothing to fear, he was gonna be okay…

But he kept thinking about Patton. Patton, who started crying at the mere thought of Logan being injured.

So Logan was a little scared. 

It was then Logan realized this alleyway didn’t have an exit. He turned around, planning to leave when he felt the temperature of the air drop about fourteen degrees around him. A relative guess, but essentially all he meant is that it got much colder, very quickly, and Logan tried to keep calm, but he knew that something was going on, and it wasn’t good. 

(Later, Roman called this a half-assed observation. Logan retorted that Roman was in no place to talk, having once though his hairbrush was a giant spider. Roman shut up after that.)

Logan sighed before he felt the temperature drop even more, the cold stinging at his skin. God, why do all the bad guys in this story have magic powers and not the good guys? And why did the author just decide to add that in? 

Well, kiddos, the author hasn’t slept in three weeks, and they’re on their third cup of coffee on the seventh day of vacation. The author does whatever the fuck they want right now. 

Logan told his heart to calm down - the only reason it was allowed to beat faster than his normal accepted heart rate was when Patton put on that sparkly blue dress and his dumb ass went starry-eyed. And that was only ‘cause Logan had given up on calming down when his fiance looked that hot. 

He rested his hand on the wall of the building next to him, feeling tired all of a sudden. He could hear voices behind him - what to do, what to do?

Logan felt his head grow heavy, and he felt like he was gonna collapse. His theory was soon proven correct as he tripped on something, stumbling backward. His leg caught on a sharp object, tearing a gash into his leg and he fell to the ground.

He gripped his leg, feeling the pain spread throughout his body. 

He still had to get home, he had to help Roman, had to call Patton, but… 

Logan went numb, and then all was black. 

He woke up in the hospital, already annoyed with how far he was going to be behind on his planning. And the work - Roman couldn’t survive without Logan there for any more than about two hours.

Then the reality of it all set in; where was his fiance? It was rather late, he observed as he twisted around in his tight sheets to look at the clock. Or, alternatively, rather early if you wanted to look at it like that. It was around 2 am - would Patton be asleep? Would Logan have to spend the night alone? 

Would Patton?

The doctor walked in and busied himself checking Logan’s vitals and fixing his bandages. Logan caught a glance of the painful gash in his leg, and from what he could see it wasn’t too deep, but it was a little… 

Maybe the explanation isn’t necessary. 

He pulled out his phone and the doctor stopped him, saying “We’ve already notified your emergency contacts. Your… girlfriend?” he prompted, glancing at Logan. 

Logan shook his head. “Sister.” 

“Your sister didn’t respond. So we contacted your brother as well -”

“My fiance,” he corrected. “Laura is my sister. Patton is my fiance. Don’t assume.”

The doctor huffed. “Yes, yes. Your fiance responded immediately and with concern, he said he’d be here shortly.”

Logan sighed. “Thank you, doctor. And I assume I am to be fine?”

“I wouldn’t walk on that leg for a little while, but you should be fine otherwise.”

He buried his face in his hands as the doctor walked away.  _ Patton… he’s already had one friend hurt a leg, and even if… it’s gonna destroy him. I can’t - I shouldn’t have - I should have just stayed home with him. I would have rather stayed and cuddled with him than gone to see Roman…  _

Logan shook his head, trying to combat the thoughts closing in on him. Patton and he would be okay. He was not going to break off the engagement or anything ridiculous and nonsensical like that, but Logan was still a little bit concerned Patton had maybe had a panic attack. 

Though Virgil was often up at ungodly hours of the night, hopefully, Patton was able to get ahold of his friend. 

When the doctor returned, Logan stopped him to ask, “Who found me? I had left my house around ten… it’s 2 am.”

The doctor shrugged. "I don't remember their face or name. They wore a hood the whole time, not a lot to remember."

Logan groaned. "That doesn't sound good."

"Indeed."

He left Logan alone after that. Logan glanced around the room, opting to rest his eyes for a few minutes before the door was unceremoniously burst through by his very frazzled - frazzled? That wasn't the right word. His fiance was angry, upset, and probably deeply relieved and there was no good word to describe that. 

He looked scared as hell, and Logan immediately felt a pang of guilt for what he had put him through. How could he have done that to someone like Patton?

\---

Patton wrapped his fiance in a fierce hug, burying his face in Logan's shoulder. "Don't scare me like that!"

Logan put his arms back around Patton gingerly. "I'm sorry, honey -”

"You should have just stayed home," he said, sniffling. "We could have spent the night together, it wasn't that big of a deal, we could have cuddled or watched a movie but now you're here and I can't - I just can't."

"I really am so sorry, my heart. I was being stupid, I wasn't thinking - well, I was, but not about the right things. I just wish I'd been thinking more about you..."

Logan's words sounded like an echo in Patton's brain. He knew full well Logan was truly sorry - even though this wasn't his fault, and it wasn't even that bad - but they'd told him that the person who had brought an unconscious Logan to the hospital wore a mask, and that Logan had no explanation for what had happened, and that he'd hurt his leg, and... and it was all just too similar. Patton had no business getting so worked up over this, but he just couldn't stop himself. 

Patton started to cry silently, hoping Logan wouldn't notice. "You scared me so bad... it was Virgil all over again."

"Oh, honey." Logan moved over on the bed so Patton could sit with him. "I'm sorry, okay? Look at me."

He glanced up, wiping the tears from his eyes. "Yes?”

"Darling, don't cry. I'm fine. Don't you cry, everything's gonna be okay. I shouldn't have gone out on my own so late, especially when we know Deceit is targeting us." Logan rubbed small circles into Patton's back. "I love you, okay?"

"I love you too. But how can you be so stupid?"

Logan laughed. "That's a good question, Pat. I suppose I deserve that." 

Patton huffed. "Heck yeah, you do! I know - I know it's hard to take me seriously when I'm hysterical like this, but you do really need to explain yourself. Lolo, what happened?"

"First off, you're not hysterical. Someone dear to you was hurt, you have every right to have reacted in the way you did and I won't like you beat yourself up over something like that. Second off," he sighed, "I can't remember much, Patton. I remember.... losing count of my footsteps and walking too far, turning down the wrong alleyway." He chuckled. "I was reading an email you'd sent me, about the wedding. I got distracted. So like I said before, I turned down the wrong alley, and there were voices... I can't tell you whose they were. I couldn't even tell you if they were in the alley or not. My brain started to go cloudy, and I knew something was wrong. The only time I ever cease functioning by my own control is, uh, not relevant to this story." Patton noted the deep blush at that statement but opted to let Logan continue instead of pressing. "So I tried to get out since I knew something was wrong - the temperature had dropped about fourteen degrees, by my best estimate, and all of a sudden I was freezing, and I had no control anymore." 

Logan must have noticed the tears starting to form yet again in Patton's eyes because he stopped his story and wrapped his fiance in a hug. "I'm alright now, okay? Do you want me to stop talking or can you listen to the end of this?"

Patton nodded. "You can finish. It's just hard to hear since I wasn't there and really, you scared me half to death, Logan. I thought you were..." He choked back a sob. /He's fine. "I thought you had died."

Logan's face softened, and he let go of Patton, taking his fiance's hand and placing it on his own chest. "Can you feel my heartbeat?"

He nodded again.

"That's how you know I'm still right here. Okay?"

"Okay.”

Logan took a deep breath. "I stumbled backward, and I cut open my leg. It's not that bad. However, there are some stitches, but it should heal up fine. The more important part is that I'm okay now. And everything's going to be okay."

"Is it?" Patton asked, not meaning to sound so miserable. "I mean, I'm sorry."

Logan looked at him in confusion. "Yes, of course it is. It's not okay right now, god knows your life probably got about ten times more hectic when you met me, but it will be. And I honestly believe that."

"How can you be so confident?" Patton asked, rubbing his thumb along the side of Logan's hand as he held it. "Aren't you all about facts and such? How can those possibly show a better world?"

"You sound so pessimistic, darling." Logan smiled. "We're getting married in a few weeks, think about that."

Patton blushed. "We are, aren't we?"

"And isn't that exciting?"

"It is!" Patton laughed. "You know just how to calm me down, Lolo."

Logan grinned. "I suppose I do, don't I?" He cupped his hand behind Patton's head and kissed him softly. "It's one of the perks of having a fiance.

"Yeah, and that's another," Patton said, kissing Logan again. "You go home to my place tomorrow, alright?"

"I can't, Roman needs me -"

Patton huffed. "You're right, but he has a cellphone and Virgil. Besides, you need rest, and you will get none at the palace."

"Remy's got the day off tomorrow -"

"Joan doesn't. They can take care of it better than Remy, you know that." Patton tucked a hair behind Logan's ear. "Just humor me, honeybun."

Logan smiled. "I guess I can do that."

\--

It was three am when Patton called Virgil and frantically begged him to come to the hospital. 

Virgil and Roman had had a sort of… sleepover, the night before, so when Virgil woke up to answer the call, he had to sleepily untangle himself from his soulmate's arms. (Roman swore the cast wasn’t an issue, but he definitely mumbled ‘fuck his broken leg’ when he thought Virgil couldn't hear him.) Roman groaned and muttered a ‘stop moving’ before Virgil shushed him, picking up Patton's call. 

“It is 3 am -” 

“Logan's in the hospital.” 

Virgil immediately shut down his annoyed response. “Do you want me to -” 

“Yeah,” Patton said, his voice wavering. “Please.” 

“I'll be right there.” 

Roman groaned in annoyance, rolling over as Virgil got out of bed. 

"Virgil, you can't just get up and leave me. It's early."

Virgil rolled his eyes. "I have to. Patton needs me. Would you come with? I could use some company."

"I can't," he said, rolling over. "It's early."

"Roman, I can't believe you..."

Roman sat up, annoyed. "I could be jumped or something."

"But Patton!" Virgil protested. "Are you going insane? He's my friend. He needs my help."

He sighed. "You could be in danger if you go out there. Virgil, please..."

"Fucking hell, Roman, this is not about me, this is about Logan being hurt and Patton needing me. It's not something for you to get all protective boyfriend over!" Virgil huffed. "I'm going. Like it or not."

"Of course I don't like it, Virge!" Roman ran his fingers through his hair. "I don't know how to explain this to you, since you're not quite used to being part of the royal family yet, and you're used to different manners -"

Virgil crossed his arms across his chest. "What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"

"It means you're not used to having to be careful about that kind of stuff. Going out at 3 am is completely forbidden, Virgil. Especially as someone as potentially close to the crown prince as his soulmate - or his friend, if you're able to deny the romantic part of it if someone approaches you." Roman bit his lip. "I just want you to be safe, Virgil. Really."

He glanced down at the floor. "I know you want me to be safe, Roman," Virgil said, looking up. "But this is so important to me... Patton has done so much for me, and he needs me right now."

"This kingdom is going to need you more," Roman replied, the words hanging heavy between them. Virgil couldn't believe Roman would just dismiss the safety of Patton and Logan like that - Logan, one of his own staff! And Patton, who was the sweetest and didn't deserve to be alone while his fiance went through such a hard time.

But Roman... Roman wanted to ignore all that for the sake of the 'kingdom'. He was treating Virgil as if Virgil was already his king, instead of Roman's boyfriend of literally not even a full day. 

And he could see the concern. Virgil, as much as he hated to even think about this, was the soulmate of someone who was going to be king someday, which meant Virgil was going to be king as well. Which was scary, not only for him but probably as it should be for the entire kingdom because Virgil was in no way suited to be a king of anything, not even a small app game. 

He was so off track now, thinking about being king and all that, but he just had one last thing... 

Virgil lo... liked, Roman, and he was pretty sure that Roman was worth all the struggle and hardship of becoming the king. Or king-consort. Nobody had explained to him how this all worked. 

But that wasn't the point here! The point was that Virgil just wanted to support his friend during a hard time and Roman was being a bitch about it. 

Virgil stared Roman straight in the eyes, hoping that this didn't ruin their budding relationship. "My prince, I must go help Patton. This is much more important to me than the crown."

Roman took a deep breath then exhaled sharply. "Then don't expect your crown and boyfriend to be here when you return," he said, laying back down and turning away from Virgil. 

"Why do you have to be so dramatic?" Virgil huffed. "I can't even - Roman. Please. I'm not going to choose between you and Patton - "

"You're not choosing between me and him! I don't want you to have to choose! I just want you to wait a couple hours and then take a guard. As my boyfriend, you have a target on your back." Roman sighed. "Plus, have you forgotten about the massive cast on your leg? You can't go out in the city alone at night! You still have crutches."

Virgil glanced at the offending crutches, annoyed at them and his boyfriend. "Then come with me!"

"Fuck no! I could get murdered! Logan got hurt, and he's associated with me. Think about what could happen to me or you," he said, standing up and crossing to Virgil. "Please. I can't lose you."

"It's been a day," Virgil replied coldly. "I think you can let me go outside, Mother Gothel." With that, he turned on his heel and stormed out as best he could, not even sure if he was going to be able to make it to the hospital.

\--

Roman could have easily caught up to Virgil. The young man was hobbling away slowly, and Roman was well awake by this point. 

He sighed and turned on his lights. There was no way he'd be able to sleep at this point. Virgil's words rang through his mind - what happened if the only man who could ever be Roman's husband and co-ruler didn't want the crown?

Roman tried to convince himself that Virgil was just mad and confused, and upset, and he wasn't going to denounce the throne just because Roman said something that he shouldn't have said. 

The room spun a bit, and Roman felt a bit sick to his stomach. He sat down at his desk and flipped through a couple of papers, not really reading anything. There had to be someone he could talk to... but no one was awake at this hour. 

Well, almost no one. 

He got up and turned on the intercom, opting for one of the rooms in the employees' wing. "Paging Remy Alexander."

"My prince, it's 4 am," he responded (almost immediately).

"I - I know. But I need someone to talk to. Can you come down to the royal quarters?"

Remy's tone softened. "Of course, Roman. Is something wrong?"

"I had a fight with Virgil and I don't feel too good." Roman sighed. "I'm sorry."

"Roman, if you wanted to, you could order me to do this. Don't worry, I'll be right there. Do you want me to bring something to you? What's wrong?" His publicist and friend sounded concerned, which was a new emotion on him. 

Roman blinked a couple of tears away. "I feel like I'm gonna throw up. I think I really screwed up, Remy."

"It's gonna be okay. I'll be right there with something to settle your stomach. Sound good?"

"Y-yeah. Thank you," he said, fending off a couple more tears before hanging up and sinking back into his chair and putting his face in his hands, hoping he wouldn't cry. 

It was just Virgil... their relationship was already so, so rocky and Roman had just completely ruined it in one go. 

Remy knocked on his door a bit later, Roman calling for him to come in. He handed his prince some medicine and sat down cross-legged on the bed. "So, boy troubles, huh?"

Roman laughed despite himself. "Yeah, I guess so. Virgil slept over last night, and then he got a call and needed to leave -"

"He slept over?" Remy smirked. "Finally."

"Not like that, you weirdo. Logan's in the hospital, I guess, and Virgil wanted to go help Patton, and he wanted me to come too, and I - I told him, I told him he shouldn't go now because it's dangerous and he could be hurt and he got mad - and now he hates me."

He sighed. "He doesn't hate you, Roman. Virgil very clearly loves you. Even I know that. He's just annoyed because he wanted to support his friend and it felt like you weren't letting him."

Roman twisted part of his shirt between his fingers. "I was just scared for his safety... now that he's my boyfriend, even if that's not out yet, he's in more danger than ever and I just want him to understand that. How do I..."

“You should have given him a guard and let him go. He needs some time to adjust to the palace.” Remy adjusted his sunglasses. “But he was being a bit dramatic. You had a valid reason for concern.”

Roman nodded. “I fucked up so bad, though.”

Remy patted the bed next to him. “Come sit with me.”

He complied, and Remy put his arms around the prince. "It's gonna be alright, my Prince. Virgil will come to his senses, and you two can apologize and kiss and make up. Hey, if you're up, I have a date today... mind helping me get ready?”

A smile, despite his sadness, crossed Roman's face. "Of course."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> me, from the background: GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY
> 
> don't forget to leave kudos and a comment!!! my tumblr is @adultmorelikeadolt and i'll see y'all next time

**Author's Note:**

> moras = blackberries in spanish  
> also it sounds like morals without the l
> 
> hmu on @adultmorelikeadolt and lemme know if there's a typo or just comment to tell me that i'm a wet towel but leave kudos either way thx


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